Science museum to eliminate weekend classes

The Museum of Science will eliminate weekend courses during the school year and decide by December whether to bring back its popular summer-camp program, the museum confirmed yesterday.

The cuts are part of a plan announced in June to deal with a projected deficit. Three staffers - the entire museum courses department - have been let go.

Parents who recently learned about the possible loss of the summer program say they wish the museum could find other ways to save money.

"We literally planned our summer around their offerings," said Judy Harris, whose son, Gabe, 8, took four separate weeklong programs that ranged from marine biology to "Make It Fly." "The gifts they offer to the children in this area can't be replicated. I'm really afraid they're going to cut back the offerings and go back to square one."

Jacque Snyder's son, Patrick, 9, went to the camp for two weeks this summer.

"It's just a tremendous opportunity for children to go beyond what they would normally be taught in school science," said Snyder. "My son came home excited after camp every day."

Between 1,800 and 2,000 children, ages 5 to 15, enroll in the summer program each year. The program costs $550 a week to attend, with a discount for museum members.

Annette Sawyer, manager of education and enrichment programs, said that she understands why parents are disappointed. The cuts were made purely because of the museum's financial crunch. In June, the museum announced it would lay off 10 percent of its 400-person staff. In November, board members learned the museum faced a potential $3 million deficit.

"We are living in a world that has some certain financial responsibility to it," she said. "We need to think about how we can bring the summer school back in a sustainable, financial way."

For now, the museum has decided to stop offering the weekend educational courses it has in the past. They were not as popular as the summer camp, with about 1,000 children attending, said Sawyer. It remains to be seen whether the summer program will return. Sawyer said museum staffers will work hard this fall to try to figure out a way to bring the courses back.

"We realize and recognize we need to get back to these parents by the end of this calendar year," said Sawyer. "So we take this very seriously and these cuts were very difficult to make but it doesn't signal anything other than we need to take some time out and figure out how we can bring back these programs in a sustainable way."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.