Money moves not a picnic for Lynn schools

LYNN – For most in the city, April vacation week is a chance to get away, rest up and prepare for the stretch run of the school year, but the classrooms-turned-offices at the School Administration Building on Commercial Street are busy as ever as administrators put the finishing touches on the fiscal year 2010 budget.With the House releasing its first version of how legislators would like to handle the state’s finances next year, the department now has at least an idea of what they are looking at in the way of state funding, expecting to work with about the same amount of state aid as fiscal 2009.”The initial numbers are in from the House – with the schools it looks like we are level-funded,” said School Committee Chair Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr.Although the House’s initial spending plan will almost certainly be revised in the coming weeks, Clancy says the $27.44 billion proposal is a strong enough indicator of what they will be dealing with.”They (the House) are certainly a barometer. There is no money up there,” he said. “You won’t see me criticizing the legislature, there is just no money up there.”The School Department is already feeling the pinch from a more than $3 billion state deficit, as Gov. Deval Patrick has cut local aid funding on multiple occasions since last October.Most recently, the department lost funding for alternative program grants from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.A lack of tax revenue statewide and in the city has created a $4-to-$5 million gap in the upcoming school budget, something administrators have been trying to close by building the budget from the bottom up.Clancy and his fellow School Committee members say they expect to see a first draft of the school budget in time for next Tuesday’s meeting, which they will review and provide input on.”I hope to see something this week, or certainly by next week,” said Clancy.School Committee member John Ford said Tuesday that he and other members have had a number of sit down meetings with Superintendent Catherine Latham and her staff since they began negotiating the budget earlier this year.”We should have a rough draft in time for the next meeting then we can have a chance to pick at it, ask questions and give (Latham) some input on what we do and don’t like,” he said. “We have a had a couple of meetings with her, fact to face sit downs, and I usually try to touch base with (Committee Secretary Thomas Iarrobino) on a daily basis. He keeps me abreast of changes and any complaints, meetings with principals and that sort of thing.”