Saugus may have to lay off some teachers

SAUGUS – Saugus School Committee Chairman Wendy Reed said if the school doesn?t have a budget put together by June 15, layoff notices will have to go out to 70 non-professional employees.The town has not been able to put together a budget due to an ongoing forensic audit that uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in what accounting firm Powers and Sullivan describes as “financial violations.”?We were expecting to have some kind of rough number this week,” said Reed on Friday. “But the Board of Selectmen isn?t meeting until Monday at 5 p.m. to discuss the priorities. It leaves us hanging. The superintendent and finance director are working on various scenarios so the school committee will have the information and be prepared. But if we don?t have a number by the 15th, those notices have to go out.”Reed said non-professional employees make up teachers with less than three consecutive years experience and noted all 70 notices would have to go because there would be no budget with which to work.?It?s really complicated when it comes to teaching staff,” said Reed. “You would call them back as soon as you had a number and hopefully in a short period of time they haven?t found other work.”Reed said tiered reductions are likely this year that will be worse than last year, when Superintendent Richard Langlois established reductions to shave $1.2 million from the school department budget. However, that money was eventually restored.?There?s only so much they can cut on the town side,” said Reed. “We know we?re going to be cut, we just don?t know how much.”The School Committee voted on a $27.4 million budget for 2013 in January, which is about a $1.7 million increase from last year.Reed estimated at least $1 million will be cut this year.?I?m hoping it won?t be more,” said Reed. “Unfortunately I have been through cuts before. It?s really, really tough. We can get through one year, but if it?s going to be several years of cuts, rebuilding gets more and more difficult.”School Committee member Arthur Grabowski also said the cuts could be worse than in the past.?This is pretty significant in my brief history,” said Grabowski. “Unfortunately I think we?re going to lose personnel, but we have to get creative.”Grabowski pointed to the $10,000 the district spends to have its website maintained as something that could be cut, noting it?s something students can do as part of a class project for free.?I want to see cuts in non-personnel items as much as possible before I see cuts in personnel items,” said Grabowski. “The sanctity of the classroom is my main goal. We have to hope in the next year or two that the town finances turn around.”The School Committee will meet on Thursday at the Roby Building.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].