Schools brace for teacher layoffs
Hikes in insurance, utilities blamed
In recent weeks, Salem has attracted widespread attention because of a budget crisis that resulted in a $4.7 million midyear shortfall, prompting the layoff of dozens of teachers.
Although no other local community is taking such drastic steps, next year's outlook may include more bad news for teachers. Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a $223 million increase in state school spending for next year - a 6 percent increase - and it can't come soon enough.
Citing increases in health insurance, utilities, special education, and teachers' pay, several area districts - including Lynn, Gloucester, Melrose, Swampscott, Hamilton, and Wenham, and the towns in the Pentucket regional district - are bracing for possible layoffs next summer.
"The party's over, the state doesn't have the money, and the future is bleak," said Lynn Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr., who expects the city's schools will have an $8 million shortfall for fiscal year 2009. "Unless there's a miracle, there will be layoffs."
Clancy said Proposition 2 1/2 - which limits municipalities to a maximum 2.5 percent annual increase in property taxes - and the Commonwealth's collective bargaining laws for municipal workers, have worked against Lynn. "The way municipal bargaining is set up by the state, it guarantees more spending," said Clancy.
More than half of the Lynn shortfall, $4.1 million, will be tied to contractual raises for teachers. In addition, the city will spend $2 million for school workers' health insurance, the fifth consecutive year it has weathered a 12 percent insurance hike. The city also needs $1.2 million to fund its charter schools, and $700,000 for buying back sick days from retiring teachers, a provision of their contract.
In Melrose, Superintendent Joseph Casey is predicting a shortfall of $534,000 for fiscal year 2009, which begins July 1. Mayor Robert Dolan attributed the shortfall to increased utility costs, special education hikes, rising health insurance premiums, and teachers' raises. "I think everything's on the table; you obviously have to reduce," said Dolan, when asked about possible teacher layoffs for next year.
Dolan said the city has not recovered from a 20 percent cut in state aid compared with six years ago. "We received $3 million less local aid this year from the state than we had in 2001," he said.
Dolan also blamed the state for some of the budgeting problems. "The state has to take the handcuffs off of cities and towns," he said.
The Melrose mayor wants the state to change its Group Insurance Commission policy, which allows municipalities to join if 70 percent of its union employees endorse the plan. "The state has to make GIC mandatory" for municipal workers, said Dolan, who added that if GIC was implemented in Melrose, the city would immediately save $1.2 million on health insurance costs.
Dolan also wants other reforms, such as eliminating paid police details on city streets that are now required by state law.
In Swampscott, school officials are looking at double-digit layoffs for a second consecutive year. "We're at $1.2 million plus," said David Whelan, Swampscott School Committee chairman, referring to next year's projected budget shortfall. Last year, the district faced a similar crisis with a $1.8 million shortfall, and cut 30 teachers and administrators while also closing an elementary school.
"We're at the point where we're probably looking at laying off 20 people," said Whelan. Whelan said school officials underestimated by $1 million the cost of running a new high school. The town's new $56 million high school - which came in 20 percent over budget - opened this year.
Whelan also said the town is hampered by the state's funding formula. The town receives 14.3 percent of its school budget from the state, less than the 17.5 percent that is the state average. By 2011, all communities will receive at least 17.5 percent, but Whelan said that won't help Swampscott balance next year's budget.
"There's no magic to any of this," he said. "There's no easy cut to make that solves all of the problems."
In Gloucester, a series of budget shortfalls has led to cutting more than 100 teachers and teaching assistants in the last six years. The school district might have to trim more personnel next year facing a $1.5 million deficiency, according to Greg Verga, School Committee chairman.
"It's inevitable that we're going to have to be streamlining further," said Verga.
The gap could grow if the city reaches a contract with its teachers, whose contract has expired.
The regional school districts of Pentucket, at $950,000, and Hamilton-Wenham, at $1.5 million, also are looking at shortfalls in fiscal 2009. Like the other communities facing possible layoffs, both districts point to rising health insurance costs, higher utilities, and contractual teachers' raises as the biggest problems.
"It will mean some cutbacks. I don't think we're in any different shape than probably most of the communities," said Paul Livingston, superintendent of the Pentucket district, which includes students from Groveland, Merrimac, and West Newbury.
Richard Boroff, Hamilton-Wenham School Committee chairman, sounded an ominous note while discussing his district's $1.5 million shortfall. "We're at a tipping point," said Boroff, whose district was forced to cut 20 teachers and teaching assistants last year.
He said only a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which would have to pass in both Hamilton and Wenham, would prevent the layoff of as many as 50 more teachers and teaching assistants.
"There is no question that there will be massive layoffs if we don't pass an override," said Boroff. "It's not a question; it's a statement of fact." 