SWAMPSCOTT — A reduction of five elementary school classrooms and the elimination of some elementary teacher positions were some of the preliminary school budget cuts revealed last week.
School officials say the potential cuts may be necessary as the district aims to remain within 2½ percent budget growth because the large percentage increases the town has allocated for the school department in recent years is not sustainable.
Other potential cuts include the elimination of a high school English/Language Arts teacher position, a high school special education teacher position, a part-time health administrative assistant at the high school, a position from the middle school’s Swampscott Integrated for Transition (SWIFT)/Harbor program, a position from the middle school to be determined, and another district position, according to a presentation from school business administrator Evan Katz.
One classroom per grades K-4 would be eliminated, which would also cut those teaching positions. But to target support for larger class sizes, two of those teacher positions would be restored for a net reduction of three teachers, Katz said.
That would result in a potential net staffing cut of 8½ positions and a FY19 school budget reduction of approximately $423,500, he said.
With the proposed classroom reductions, elementary class sizes would increase from about 21 to 23 students, which is aimed at creating equity in those classrooms, said Superintendent Pamela Angelakis.
Angelakis said there are major space issues at all three of the district’s elementary schools that can’t wait for a new school building, and need to be addressed now. Recently, the school district was accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for replacement of Hadley Elementary School, which was built in 1911.
“The amount of teaching and learning that is occurring in our hallways is another major issue,” Angelakis said. “It is neither acceptable nor appropriate for our students and teachers. The budget proposal is also about equity, equity for our students, equity for our teachers and equity in learning space.
“For years, we’ve been creating educational spaces in hallways, supply closets, under stairwells and on landings. This is not acceptable. We’re out of options. This is not the standard of education our students and teachers deserve. It’s time to make a change.”
Elementary schools would go from eight classes per grade to seven. By combining some of those classes, there will be more learning space that is appropriate and it helps school officials stay within their targeted 2½ percent budget growth, said Amy O’Connor, school committee chairwoman.
“When you look at cuts for elementary schools, it looks like we’re going backwards, but we’re still growing by 2½ percent,” O’Connor said. “Good things are happening in our district.”
Angelakis said she was tasked by the School Committee to bring in a budget with a 2½ percent increase in town allocation. In FY16, she said the increase was 4.3 percent; in FY17, the increase was 4.2 percent; and in FY18, the increase was 3.5 percent, but the town also absorbed some of the school department’s expenses, including snow removal and facilities costs.
If the school were to roll over its current budget, Angelakis said the schools would be asking for a 5 percent increase in allocation, which she called unreasonable.
“Our goal is stop outpacing town growth,” said O’Connor. “We are being particularly mindful in managing our growth and the growth of our budget, and we are doing this specifically in the context of ensuring that we have educational parity in our district, that we are prioritizing according to the district goals and reorganizing to meet those goals.”
But the Swampscott Education Association (SEA), the teachers’ union, said in a Facebook post that the reduction of elementary classrooms will not only be cutting staff, forcing teachers to be moved between buildings and grades, but means that up to 100 students will be transferred to a new school building altogether.
The SEA said this also results in a class size increase, but that the new average of 23 elementary students per classroom does not account for students that move to the district or new housing developments that could also increase class size.
At the high school level, the union said cutting an ELA teacher means that their current five classes will then be absorbed, raising class sizes in English as well.
The union, in their statement, said some questions they have include: what schools are those five elementary cuts coming from, where are these 100 students going to, will students be able to stay in their neighborhood schools, and is increasing class sizes, cutting teachers and moving students in the best interest of our students.
O’Connor said there’s been a strong reaction since Wednesday night’s School Committee meeting, where the preliminary budget cuts were discussed. On Friday, Angelakis released a video on the school district’s website responding to what she called some of the misinformation being disseminated on social media since the meeting.
“It is undeniable that the real estate tax burden in Swampscott is significant and the cost of building a new building will only add to this burden,” Angelakis said in the video. “It is incumbent upon all of us to be financially responsible. As a result, the School Committee and I are in agreement that we will only increase our school budget for FY19 by no more than 2½ percent.
“We have a very generous per pupil expenditure in our school district and the town has consistently been generous in funding our budget. We continue to play catch-up on maintenance, facility and technology needs. We continue to struggle to reassign classes and spaces to meet the educational needs. Much of our budget must be allocated to solve these issues.”
Angelakis said many options are currently being proposed and deliberated by her leadership team to produce a 2½ percent budget. At the School Committee meeting, she said some of those options include realigning the middle and high school schedules, and athletics.
“As school leaders, we’re all confident that we can balance our K-12 needs and wants and deliver a quality education to all our students,” she said. “We are comfortable in the direction we’re moving.”
A public hearing for the school budget will be held at a School Committee meeting on Jan. 24. The committee is scheduled to adopt the FY19 budget at their meeting on Feb. 14.
