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As noted in today’s Sun, Lowell City Manager Bernie Lynch informed Superintendent Baehr yesterday that the city could provide an additional $200,000 in funds for the schools next year, enabling the restoration of four key positions to its FY09 budget. The enhanced communication between the city and its schools, along with an early commitment from the state on its education funding, have improved the school budget process—even though the approved budget required extensive staffing cuts due to limited resources. The school committee today voted unanimously to present the city with a total budget of $137,161,454, a less than 1% increase over last year and an amount that falls within the committed revenue. The loss of 60 positions will impact the quality of education students receive, effect class size and cause major staff disruptions particularly at the elementary schools, while demanding more from staff at all levels. This is the seventh year in a row of school cuts that total 360 positions eliminated since 2002. The committee also unanimously decided, however, to provide the council with a list of “priority positions” to be restored if additional funding is available. The superintendent will present that list at the next school committee meeting on Wednesday, May 21, in a tiered approach—with the most important restorations first. Despite the difficulty of making these cuts, the spirit of cooperation from the city has me hopeful (perhaps overly so?) that restoring more positions may be possible. The improved communication between the two sides of local government underscores how we’re all part of this community and we must all be invested in the education of our children even during difficult times. Without that commitment, I’m concerned the progress we have made in our schools will be diminished.