Swampscott to hold public hearing on FY2010 school budget

SWAMPSCOTT-A public hearing on the FY ?10 school budget will be held this week.School Committee Chairman David Whelan said state law requires school districts to hold annual public budget hearings and the hearing would be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the high school.Whelan said the budget that would be presented at the hearing is Superintendent Matthew Malone’s zero deficit budget, which has been approved by the School Committee.?We encourage people to come and get involved,” he said. “This is a forum to allow people to express their opinions and tell us what they think as opposed to listening to us discuss it among ourselves as a board. We listen and people talk.”Whelan said he knows there is a lot of work ahead.?We approved it knowing full well we have much more discussion ahead of us,” he said. “I just don’t think we’re going to have information we need to give people the information they are looking for. Realistically it’s probable we’ll have to do this again (conduct another public hearing) when we get more information to give people an opportunity to weigh in on decisions we’re making. It’s an ongoing process.”Whelan said the budget that would be presented on Thursday has not really changed since it was presented on Feb. 10.?We started this discussion in October,” he said. “It’s been very slow and tedious because we don’t have all the information we need.”Whelan says the biggest wild card is whether additional state and federal money will materialize.?There is the federal stimulus program but we won’t know the details for weeks,” he said. “If we have new information by early April, we will have additional meetings to present what that new information means. “Whelan said as it stands almost $1 million in cuts had to be made even though the district is receiving more money from the town than it did last year. The schools are slated to receive $22.7 million from the town for FY ?10, which is an increase of $500,000 over last year.Malone’s budget calls for eliminating a technical education teacher, laying off the band director and two physical education teachers.?We’re trying to cut as far away from the core as we can,” Whelan said. “The first thing we are going to do if we get stimulus money is bring back teachers.”Business Manager Ed Cronin said guidance director, fourth grade teacher and elementary specialist positions were lost through attrition.?Those are not actual layoffs,” he said. “New cuts for next year also include a METCO advisor, a part time aide and two part time security people at Swampscott Middle School.”At the public budget hearing last year, more than 100 people were in attendance but Whelan said he doesn’t expect as much participation this year.?Last year a lot of people turned out because we were cutting a tech ed teacher,” he said. “This year we’re cutting as far away from the core as we can.”