Peabody bracing for ‘real crisis’ in budget cuts

PEABODY – After a brief moment out in the cold due to an unexpected and harmless fire alarm, it was back to business for the Peabody School Committee Tuesday night.It didn’t take committee members long to warm up, as Mayor Michael Bonfanti cranked the heat with discussions on the city’s and its school’s financial outlook.According to the mayor, Governor Deval Patrick’s $128 million in cuts to local aid will have a costly impact on the Leather City. Peabody will have to cut their budget by approximately $900,000 during the current fiscal year alone. Come July, when the next budget season begins, he said the city will have to part ways with three times that amount.”I’m not sugarcoating,” he told Committee members. “This is a real crisis?It’s going to be difficult.”Bonfanti and his department heads have been planning for such devastating news for months now. A Planning Committee, chaired by School Committee member Mike Moutsoulas, was organized specifically to prepare the city for the worst: closing schools and redistricting. Layoffs are also on the table.Bonfanti urged viewers at home and those in the audience to advocate with their state representatives to get more local power and the proposed revenue bills passed in an effort to offset the cuts. School Committee member Dave McGeney agreed.”What would really help the school system is backing off the mandates,” he said, using MCAS testing as an example of extreme cost and man power to communities. “Relief on that level will really help keep a teacher in a classroom.”McGeney said he doesn’t fault the state for making such drastic cuts because the money simply isn’t there, but he disagrees with their idea of requiring the Group Insurance Commission’s health insurance plan.Regardless of what happens, Bonfanti said that the city will be affected equally. He said cuts will be made across the board.”We are one city and we are in it together,” he said.