Lynn schools again face tight budget

LYNN – Budget concerns are still in the back of school department officials’ minds as faculty, staff and students get ready to return to class next week.September is a time of hope and optimism in the school department. Another school year is about to begin; teachers are refreshed and ready for a fresh start. But the possibility of rising energy and food costs are still lingering, and Superintendent Nicholas Kostan is praying for a mild winter that will help keep costs down.Still left with a bad taste in his mouth from a difficult spring, where the department was forced to close two schools and lay off 90 teachers due to lack of funding, Kostan said there is little room to move in the budget this coming school year as well.”We are always concerned with the budget. The fact is we just don’t have a great margin of error,” her said. “Energy is always a big question mark, you just don’t know how it is going to go. We have an eye on energy, an eye on unemployment and an eye on food cost.”The fiscal year 2009 budget essentially covers the basic needs of the department, such as payroll, health insurance and energy, and very little else. If prices rise too high in any area the department could be in trouble, as there is virtually no room to move if costs increase.”This is going to be the tightest year financially that I can remember, there really is little cushion. Hopefully it will be a mild winter,” Kostan said. “We gave the best projections that we could configure based on the circumstances with the budget. For now we are looking forward to the opening of the schools and keeping an eye on class size.”Despite the layoffs, the fiscal ’09 budget did allow for a backup plan in schools where class size may be a problem. With over 400 students transferring from the Washington and Fallon elementary schools, closed due to budget cuts, class size is a legitimate concern at schools such as the Tracy Connery and Cobbett schools, where many of the displaced students will attend.The school department set aside enough money to retain nine of the laid off teachers to add additional classes to schools that are in need.Those teachers will not be assigned to their schools until the end of September or beginning of October, when Kostan and his staff have a better handle on enrollment, transfers and class size.”They really are on hold, because we don’t know where they are going to be,” Kostan said. “We are just going to have to wait and see where the needs are. We won’t know until we can get our enrollment figures together for this year.”