Marblehead school panel gives preliminary OK to $29.6M budget

MARBLEHEAD – Superintendent of Schools Greg Maass has preliminary School Committee approval for a $29.58 million Fiscal Year 2013 school budget and a tentative plan to rearrange $915,670 inside that budget to make his education plan a reality.But while the committee unanimously supported those tentative steps and Maass?s plan to hire an assistant superintendent for curriculum, a human resources director and a second technology supervisor, Maass still needs to check the total amount with the town finance director and work out the details of the in-house shifts that will make it happen.The $275,000 to hire the three new positions will come from rearrangements in Maass?s administration, including reductions in the hours for the fine arts curriculum director and Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) director.Maass said he met with Fine Arts Director Beth DelForge and METCO Director Francois Fils-Aime in private and talked to them about his plans so the announcement would not come as a surprise. He did not name either administrator in his remarks and asked committee members to discuss the positions involved, not the persons.Maass said the METCO program and fine arts teachers were capable of becoming “distributive leaders.”Marblehead?s METCO program is in its fifth decade, with 73 students making the trip from Boston to Marblehead every day, including 24 at Marblehead High, 10 at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School, 33 at the Marblehead Village School, four at the Bell School and two at the Coffin School.?We?re not cutting the METCO program,” Maass said. “We?re going to continue to have conversations with the director and come up with a plan.”Maass also listed savings of $150,000 each from realignments of mainstream and special education staff, $75,000 from Glover School utilities next year, $50,000 from a reduction of one Glover teacher and $65,000 in district-wide energy savings. Maass noted that his energy savings estimates were conservative and the actual amounts may be more.School Committee Chairman Eu-Rim Chun praised Maass and Interim School Business Manager Kevin Meagher for their work.?This is a difficult thing and I think you did a great job,” said committee member Dick Nohelty. “We consistently look at the administrative team and say, ?Do more with less,? and you?ve created these positions from existing resources.”