Mayor Kim Driscoll is expected to announce today plans to "dramatically reduce" the number of teachers and other Salem Public Schools staff members laid off because of a $4.7 million deficit in the district's budget.
Driscoll met yesterday with state Representative John D. Keenan, a representative from the office of state Senator Frederick E. Berry, and several community leaders, to discuss efforts to help raise funds and help save some teaching positions, said Jason Silva, Driscoll's chief of staff.
The solutions the newly formed community coalition has come up with are scheduled to be announced at 1 p.m. today in the community room at the Salem Five Bank, 210 Essex St. Salem.
On Tuesday an unknown number of paraprofessionals and clerical staff employed by Salem Public Schools were told they no longer had jobs.
Those cuts - which school officials previously estimated would affect the equivalent of 40 to 45 full-time positions - followed an announcement Friday that 29 teachers would not be finishing the school year and that five others would have their hours reduced.
"I think the hope is that the elementary school teachers . . . would stay in place . . . so that they don't have to be yanked out," said Betsy Merry, a vice president with Coldwell Banker who attended yesterday's meeting. "You don't want the little boy in third grade to be impacted."
In a telephone interview last night, Berry said he "heard eight elementary school jobs. That's the goal."
Elementary school teachers are a "key priority," Driscoll said. To save those jobs, the community coalition must raise $155,000.
"It's amazingly heartwarming how many people have stepped up to the plate and said we're not going to take this," Driscoll said, adding that the Rotary Club already had donated $20,000 to the effort. "There's really a community spirit. It's something about New England. When the chips are down, they really come together."
Driscoll had said in a conversation with the Globe on Monday that her office was flooded with offers of help.
"The business community has reached out, from bank presidents, the realtors in town . . . [asking] 'What can we all do to pitch in?' " Driscoll said then. "The good thing about living in New England is that at the end of it all, we are still a community, and we will come together."
School and city officials first began fearing layoffs late last year, when the city's auditing firm, Powers & Sullivan, discovered a deficit in the school budget that they blamed in part on former school business manager Bruce Guy. Guy, who has not returned Globe requests for an interview, left his job at the end of September, following the School Committee's decision not to renew his three-year contract.
Shortly after his departure, auditors said, they found evidence that Guy had paid old bills with money from the current fiscal year. It also appeared that the school's financial needs had been severely underestimated in certain areas.
Much of the $4.7 million deficit has been covered using city funds, renegotiated contracts, and other cost-saving measures. However, a remaining $1.2 million gap resulted in layoffs.
Christine Sullivan, who sits on the city's planning board and is executive director of the Enterprise Center at Salem State College, attended yesterday's meeting with Driscoll and state officials.
She said in an interview earlier this week that she was moved to offer her help to school and city officials after seeing news accounts of the layoffs.
"It really sounded catastrophic," Sullivan said. "It was like being drenched with cold water. I woke up and said, 'Wait, whoa! This can't be. We've got to push back. There's got to be a coalition of people here who care.' "
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.
