Schools confront staff cuts

No longer exempt from grim trend

After years of avoiding significant staff cuts, Medford public schools will trim more than two dozen employees and eliminate nearly 50 positions total in the budget that takes effect Tuesday, when fiscal 2009 begins.

The moves will increase classroom sizes by two or three students across all grades and will eliminate some offerings, such as foreign language for sixth- and seventh-graders, said Superintendent Roy E. Belson, who called this one of the grimmest years for Medford schools since Proposition 2 1/2 took effect in the early 1980s, and the toughest since state aid was slashed more than five years ago.

Many districts have turned to layoffs or painful program cuts in recent years to manage rapid increases in utilities, health insurance, special education, and other costs, but Medford largely avoided them with less visible measures, like spending special accounts or eliminating positions when people retired. This year, though, Medford hit a critical point in its ability to cover inflating expenses while revenue sources - like city property taxes, state aid, building permit fees, and excise taxes - increase more slowly, stagnate, or even decrease, the superintendent said.

"If this is the trend and pattern, eventually it is going to cripple us," said Belson, who is entering his 40th year with the district, 14th as superintendent. "Right now we're deeply wounded."

City and school officials finalized their budgets last week. Mayor Michael J. McGlynn initially foresaw public-safety layoffs as well but managed to avoid them with a balancing act that included soliciting donations to city coffers and scouring line items from the just-completed budget year for pockets of unspent cash, a few hundred or a few thousand dollars at a time.

"It's a great feeling to be able to get here," said McGlynn, who drew from sources that included a $45,000 anonymous donation and an agreement from developer North Shore Construction to release $129,000 held in escrow as a pledge from the city to complete a water-main improvement associated with the sale of the Kennedy-Lincoln School. But "it's not the perfect budget, because we would have liked to have done more for education."

The schools will eliminate the equivalent of 47.65 full-time positions, including about 25 teachers, with at least half expected to be layoffs, Belson said. The final figures won't be known until later this summer, given the potential for more retirements or voluntary departures. Lawmakers finalizing the state budget could also direct more money to Medford and a handful of other communities that have suffered as a result of a change to the state-aid formula, which could save some jobs, Belson said.

Barring new money or other changes, the budget calls for 10 fewer elementary teachers, with five subtracted from Brooks, one from Columbus, one from McGlynn, and three from Roberts, Belson said. The reductions cut across grades and departments, but a move to reduce the high school security staff from six to two - not counting a police resource officer - sparked debate at separate hearings last week, when the School Committee accepted the superintendent's budget, 6-1, and when the City Council unanimously approved the full package presented by the mayor and superintendent.

"The security people do more than just stop fights or intervene," said Gwen Blackburn, a resident and retired school administrator, warning that the district would lose valuable employees who make connections with students, defuse potential problems, and share information with police. "I think it's a dangerous situation."

Belson said Medford High School is a safe place that would still have a security presence. Balancing the budget required cuts, he said. "If we have to make choices between having a foreign-language program or the right number of math teachers or equitable class sizes [at the expense of security], I'm going to come down on the side of education."

Earlier this month, McGlynn tried to save more than $1 million by asking unions to accept a greater percentage of insurance premiums to avoid layoffs. Most currently pay 19 percent, while public safety employees pay 20 percent. A few of the smaller unions accepted, but the three largest - teachers, police officers, and firefighters - did not, so the plan was scrapped.

As a result, teachers with nonprofessional status - meaning less than three years and a day of consecutive service - are in jeopardy.

Some parents and teachers asked whether the union might reconvene and reconsider its vote now that layoffs appear real.

Camille Fargo, a Brooks parent and first-year first-grade teacher, said the union vote came with little discussion and with pressure from veteran teachers to believe that top officials were bluffing, with "short fingers and deep pockets."

"It was just really embarrassing and unprofessional and very unfortunate," Fargo, who voted with the minority of teachers, told the City Council.

At the budget meeting, Councilor Robert M. Penta called the union selfish.

The Medford Teachers Association president could not be reached for comment.

Harold MacGilvray, a patrol officer and president of the Medford Police Patrolmen's Association, said the unions were being targeted unfairly.

"If there was a history of good faith and cooperation from the other side, this probably would have been done with relative ease, but because of the history the lines were drawn and everybody dug in," said MacGilvray, a Medford resident.

McGlynn asked the unions to adopt a similar change during a budget crisis a few years ago, then tried to extend it beyond the agreement to continue to avoid layoffs; the police challenged the decision and prevailed before an independent arbitrator, MacGilvray said. That precedent made it difficult to accept a similar deal this year, he said.

He said he hopes school jobs can be restored: "I'm not declaring a victory here for the union."

Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com.