Swampscott to lay off 2 teachers, hike class sizes to close $1M budget gap

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott Public Schools will be seeing larger classroom sizes and several faculty and staff positions eliminated as a result of a $1,012,399 budget deficit.The 2013-2014 budget, presented at a School Committee Meeting Wednesday night, included 13 line items to cut in order to meet the million-dollar bottom line, an estimated 4 percent of the budget.?We spread the pain around as much as possible equally throughout the district,” said Superintendent Lynne Celli. She said priority was given to cuts where they would have the “least impact on children.” Programs were saved from cuts, but Celli said layoffs will occur in a “last in, first out” nature.Celli said bigger class sizes will be the first thing re-instated as soon as more funds resurface in the form of government-funded Chapter 70 money. Current class sizes as low as 18 students, what Celli called “a luxury,” could grow to as high as 27 students at the middle school level. She said the administration will avoid redistricting students to other schools at the elementary level at all costs.Staff layoffs included two high school task management positions, (a $55,000 savings), one special education teacher each at the Hadley School and the Stanley School in favor of “applied behavior analysis tutors” (a $68,053 savings also marked with a high priority of reinstatement), two full-time high school teachers whose positions will be taken by department heads (a $97,760 savings), and the librarian positions at both the high school and middle school (an $86,714 savings).?The library had been underfunded, with no new print materials in ages,” said Principal Layne Millington. “Most of research done at this time is online anyway.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].