Nahant committee discusses budget, new kindergarten

NAHANT – The school budget was a hot topic again at Tuesday?s Nahant School Committee meeting.?We are doing everything possible that we can to keep the staff that we have,” said committee Chair Christine Kendall about the cuts being made because of the tight budget.Superintendent Philip Devaux met with the finance committee a few days ago and discussed with them two transfers the school system desperately needs. One was for $91,000 and would go towards special education transportation and tuition. This transfer was signed and passed on Monday.The second transfer was for $20,000 for additional unforeseen aid for the special education program. The transfer was tabled and Devaux stated that the finance committee will look further into it later in the school year.Also, Devaux shared the news that Nahant will be running a pre-school. Enough students have been enrolled where Nahant can hire two teachers and one aide for the pre-school classrooms. “It is tuition-based, which means you will have qualified teacher for sure,” said Devaux. “The program is looking great.” Children must be 3 years old at the start of preschool.The school committee also toiled over the large incoming kindergarten class. Currently, there are 27 students enrolled for the kindergarten class of the 2011-12 year and with the budgets cuts all currently will be in the same classroom.?It is not an ideal situation,” said Kendall. “While it is great that all these kids are moving to Nahant, it is still difficult with the school?s money situation.”While Nahant did receive some state aid, they are still currently working on how to improve the situation.Kendall admits that this can be a confusing time for people to understand what is going on with the budget and encourages people to come to the meetings. “We want to educate people the best we can,” said Kendall. “We want to make sure they are on the same page as we are. We support people coming to the meetings with any questions they have.”