Teacher raises targeted

Mayor says town can't afford them

Weymouth school officials say "everything is on the table" as they try to balance the budget in the face of deep cuts.

Mayor Sue Kay says that should include the new contract that gives teachers 13 percent raises over the next five years.

"We can't afford it," Kay said. "And I won't vote for a contract that will put more people out of a job."

She said she believes the School Committee and the Weymouth Teachers Association negotiated in good faith, but circumstances have changed.

Weymouth is in the midst of a financial crisis sparked by increased costs townwide, the discovery last month of a $3.4 million deficit in the town's self-insured healthcare account, and a projected $3.1 million deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

School officials are seeking residents' input on how to manage the budget crisis and soften its impact on students. The schools so far have eliminated 90 positions - administrators, teachers, and paraprofessionals - by attrition or layoffs.

The School Committee will meet tonight at 7:30 in the humanities center at Weymouth High. "Everything is on the table," said chairman Sean Guilfoyle.

That could include chopping about two-thirds of the $400,000 athletic budget of Weymouth High School and making the athletic program contingent on fund-raising and athletic user fees, similar to what Canton did for the school year just ended.

In that case, student-athletes were faced with fees of about $500 per sport, but town residents raised $200,000 to make the final fees about half that.

The fee proposal that will come before the Weymouth committee tonight, according to Superintendent of Schools Mary Jo Livingstone, would leave the salaries of the athletic director, the athletic trainer, and the athletic department secretary - about $138,000 - in the school budget. The remaining $262,000 for coaching sal aries, transportation, equipment, and officials would have to be raised by outside groups or by charging "pay to play" fees - with athletes shouldering the cost of their sport.

Early in the townwide budget process, all departments were asked to cut their budgets by 2 percent. In the wake of the healthcare deficit, Kay asked all departments to submit new budgets with 3.4 percent cuts. The School Committee, however, last week voted, 6-1, with Kay dissenting, not to cut the schools' budget below $54 million. The mayor is an ex-officio member.

The vote was symbolic; the mayor and the Town Council will have the final say on the amount of money the schools will get, while the School Committee decides how it will be spent.

According to Livingstone, if the mayor and council do go through with the proposed 3.4 percent cut, that - coupled with the previous 2 percent budget cut and the costs of funding the teachers contract - would mean the schools would have 8.28 percent less to spend than what they would need for a level-service budget.

The School Committee recently reached a tentative agreement with the Weymouth Teachers Association on a new contract that raises teachers' salaries 13 percent over five years.

The 1 percent raise for the school year that just ended and the 2 percent raise for next year will cost about $1.6 million and also must be funded from the new school budget.

School Committee members have been reluctant to scrap the teachers contract agreement, which took months of negotiation and was hammered out in mediation with the union before the healthcare crisis was discovered.

Kay said the committee's decision to go forward with their contract offer to the teachers is not the right one. "Obviously, what the committee is saying is that they can afford to fund this contract from their budget," she said.

Kay said that when the contract comes before the full committee, she will not vote to ratify it.

Guilfoyle said the School Committee has already revisited non-salary accounts in the budget and stripped them to the bone and sliced $300,000 from the utilities budget. He said that in a budget so heavily weighted with salaries, cuts of any kind translate into layoffs. If the committee can find more savings - such as the sports programs - these will be used to save as many positions as possible.

"Enough is enough," said Guilfoyle. "Our kids still have to pass the MCAS. We still have to provide special-education services."

Committee vice chairman James Lockhead said the layoffs and cuts haven't been a case of the committee's mismanaging expenses. "This is a case of not having enough money to spend."

He said he has been frustrated by the mayor's refusal so far to consider an override of Proposition 2 1/2, the state's property tax cap, to fill the budget gap.

Kay said she cannot ask voters to double trash fees or override Proposition 2 1/2 when the committee is funding contracts the town can't afford.

Livingstone said that in deciding which positions to eliminate or leave unfilled, she and the committee have had two priorities: protecting core instructors in such areas as English, math, and science; and trying to keep class sizes at 25 students.

"So far, given current enrollments, we've been able to accomplish that," she said.

The town's final budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 is not expected to be considered and passed until August. Until then, the mayor's original $128.5 million budget proposal that was passed by the Town Council on June 16 remains in effect. Kay has said she will consider what effect the proposed cuts will have on town departments before establishing priorities for the revised supplemental budget she will submit to the council.

Committee members have also voiced concerns about the proposed elimination of 11 school crossing guards, who are paid through the police budget but whose absence would affect students.

Kay said it was a "good management decision" given the options.

"Crossing guards are important, but should we have laid off another police officer?" she said.

Some School Committee members have also said the town should be more aggressive in collecting overdue taxes and fees.

Chief financial officer James Wilson said the town has about $2 million owed to it in back taxes, and that amount has remained stable for several years. He said about $800,000 in tax title properties were sold this year and others are in the pipeline.

Wilson said the city is trying not to foreclose on some elderly residents who have fallen behind, preferring to work with them.

"We are trying to maintain a balance before acting precipitously," said Wilson in an e-mailed statement.

"Some of the properties are wetlands and some contain hazardous material, so once again we are being selective about those properties we foreclose."

He said the foreclosure process is long, in some cases several years. The Town Council has also adopted an ordinance that would permit a taxpayer in tax title to reduce accrued interest by 50 percent, and Wilson said that has allowed other residents to avoid foreclosure.

Livingstone, who became superintendent last September and has spent 25 years in the Weymouth schools, said that it has been devastating to make such cuts to a system that has served its residents so well for years.

"The town has always been proud of its schools," she said.

Rich Fahey can be reached at faheywrite@yahoo.com.