Budget woes may mean less teachers in Lynn classrooms

LYNN – Staff layoffs in every department, including some classroom teachers, are on the horizon in the wake of a $1 million cut to the School Department budget announced Thursday night.The $1 million reduction is the School Department’s share of the $2.7 million taken from the city by Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday when he announced a sweeping $300 million cut to local aid for cities and towns.Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. presented figures to the committee Thursday detailing cuts to every department in the city, and while the School Department’s $1 million cut is the largest figure of any department, it actually represents a smaller percentage of the department’s total spending plan.Clancy made even cuts across the board, taking $458,915 from the police department’s $18 million budget and $433,431 from the fire department’s $17 million plan. Using the same formula for the schools would have cost that department $1.6 million as opposed to the $1 million that was actually cut.Superintendent Catherine Latham and Business Administrator Kevin McHugh have been preparing for the budget reduction for some time, but say they still are not sure where the million dollars will come from and how many layoff notices they will ultimately have to send out.McHugh said he has looked at all potential non-salary savings first and estimated he could save approximately half of that $1 million figure without layoffs, but losing staff members will ultimately be unavoidable at every level from aids and clerks to classroom teachers and administration.”We just can’t give a definite number (of layoffs) right now because there are different salaries and we are literally looking right down tot he dollar to see what makes sense,” said Latham, who Clancy said has been to his office to discuss budget cuts nearly every day since she was hired in January. “It is going to be serious, but I can’t give you an exact number right now.”Latham said layoff notices will go out Feb. 12 and be effective March 16.School Committee members were both confused and frustrated by the budget cut, and some were reluctant to approve the mailing of layoff notices without knowing exactly how many teachers would be affected, and where those teachers would come from.”You can’t put something like this before us if we don’t know what these layoffs are going to be,” said committee member Donna Coppola. “What if we vote for this and then we learn that the layoffs are devastating to the students in the classroom?”Ultimately, Coppola was the only member to vote against authorizing Latham to send out layoff notices.Before Latham or any city department head can begin making decisions on layoffs, the City Council must first approve the individual department cuts at a special emergency meeting Tuesday night.Clancy said he is planning to meet with union leaders and department heads this morning at 10 a.m. To discuss potential money-saving options in every department.Latham will meet with secondary school principals Friday as well to discuss money saving options at those schools.”No one should underestimate the enormity of what is going on losing this sum of money in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year,” he said. “Again, I will entertain any suggestions to save money that will help us avoid layoffs, but they have to be legitimate money-saving suggestions.”Latham said that layoffs would come from every level in the school department with a conscious effort not to disturb the classroom.As a sign that the budget crunch has affected both the school and the police, Latham announced that all school resource officers would be put back on the street starting February 1, with the exclusion of School Safety and Security Coordinator Robert Ferrari, who is in charge of public safety at all of the schools and paid for in part with grant money.”We are looking at everything and we are doing our best to keep the impact as far away from the classroom as we can,” said Latham.