Boston schools consider ways to close $33.2 million shortfall

March 19, 2008 12:12 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Some schools could close. Summer school may be eliminated. Academic coaches and preschool teachers' aides may be let go.

These are just some of the options Boston’s superintendent and school committee are expected to discuss tonight as they attempt to close a $33.2 million gap in next year’s budget.

While no decision is expected until next week, all the possible cuts on the table -- including staff reductions and programs once held sacred -- highlight the severity of the budget problem hitting school systems around the state.

“None of the choices on our list are great,” Superintendent Carol Johnson said in an interview earlier this week. “This is difficult, but we’ve done everything we can to protect things that we think are important to student achievement.”

The school system already has attempted to cut the shortfall in half by identifying $16 million in savings, Johnson said. This includes reducing central office staff; freezing hiring, executive raises, and unnecessary travel; and eliminating the extra money to the most troubled schools for longer school days.

The school committee is holding its final budget hearing tonight to get public input. It already has held three hearings around the city, drawing dozens of concerned parents and community activists.

The 56,000-student Boston school system is coping with reduced state and federal funding because of steadily declining enrollment, coupled with spending increases on new programs in recent years before Johnson took over as schools chief in August. The system also faces increasing costs for utilities, employee benefits, and transportation.

Elizabeth Reilinger, school committee chairwoman, said the current economic realities set the stage for school closings and consolidations, not just in Boston but urban school systems around the country.

“We have to do this in a thoughtful way,” Reilinger said. “It’s not just a matter of filling in a few dollars. And it’s not just this year, but a number of years moving forward.”

Johnson’s staff is in the midst of reviewing the system’s 144 schools, scrutinizing enrollment, demographic trends, and popularity of schools among parents to determine whether any should be closed.

“As we continue to look at this,” Johnson said, “nothing is off the table.”