Schools step up tax-hike pressure

In one of the clearest signs that Newton is headed for a tax override showdown, the School Committee has directed Superintendent Jeffrey M. Young to prepare a budget for next year reflecting what it would cost to keep current programs and staffing levels, rather than one based on the money the schools are expected to receive.

Mayor David B. Cohen has proposed devoting 70 percent of next year's expected revenue increase to the schools.

That would give them 4.8 percent more, but Young has said the system needs at least a 6 percent increase just to keep pace with health care premiums and teacher salaries.

The increase needs to be even higher next year because of a projected influx of 231 new students in September, according to Young.

School Committee chairwoman Dori Zaleznik, who has said she supports a general property tax override, said that a four-year pattern of erosion in programs and staff has gone too far.

Fighting for more money, she said, is a preferable alternative to planning more cuts.

"If we start in the mode of cutting, we have frantic parents worried about the size of classes in their elementary school," Zaleznik said at the committee's meeting Monday night. "I don't think that's where the community wants to be. We have to lay out what it takes [to preserve existing programs], and then give the community a chance to weigh in. And if that requires more money, so be it."

School Committee member Susan Heyman said the time has come for the members to make a stand.

"We need to make a statement as a School Committee to the people in this community that this is what we believe your children should have next year," she said. "That is what people elected us to do."

The committee did not vote on the issue, but Young said he understood exactly what members wanted him to do between now and the meeting in early March when the budget is unveiled.

"I appreciate this direction from the School Committee; I almost want to say now that I look forward to presenting the budget on March 5," Young said.

"It will not be the wish list, not the Taj Mahal, not the all-the-grand schemes, but it will be what the Newton schools should look like next year, even in difficult times."

The lone dissenting voice at the meeting was member Marc Laredo, who warned that the committee should be taking a more conservative approach and giving the parents and staff plenty of warning if cuts and adjustments have to be made.

"My concern is... that we are just deferring a problem that we are going to have to face eventually anyway," Laredo said. "If there are going to be changes in what we have, we need to warn people about what those changes are going to be."

While he was once on record as saying that the city did not need an override for 2008, Cohen has backtracked somewhat and now says that he is open to the idea, but that the city is still "at the beginning of the process" of developing next year's budget. A report by a blue-ribbon commission appointed to examine the city's finances has warned that the city's overall budget deficit will be twice the $3 million that the city has predicted.

Cohen said at Monday's meeting that the committee's decision was "a reasonable place to begin" discussions on funding for the schools.

"I am going to work with you to get as much funding as I can, because the schools are the hallmarks of our community and we have already had four difficult years in a row," Cohen said. "We need to reach a budget that is at least what we have today; it will be difficult, but we will have to work together."

Ralph Ranalli can be reached at rranalli@globe.com.