“Nowhere left to cut”
First of all, I want to say how much I appreciate the City Manager’s timely and transparent budget; available here, and you don’t have to pay $25 to see it! When did we ever see a city budget posted on the internet and available before June? Not in recent memory!
That said, I’m concerned that the Manager wants to cut $1.6 million from the schools. The above statement, that there is “nowhere left to cut” came from a Lowell elementary school principal who says that there is literally nothing inessential that can be cut from the budget, nothing that won’t have a direct effect on the quality of education received by Lowell students. The only thing left is staff and supplies – every school trimmed staff in a series of trade-offs necessary in last year’s budget process and the supply budget has been trimmed repeatedly since 2003. According to the principal I spoke with, the cost of paper has doubled since then, but the funds allocated for supplies has remained level. Now, principals will be sent back to their schools to make more trade-offs and more outright cuts. The city budget will require 11 layoffs of city employees; a cut to the schools of this magnitude will likely mean a loss of more than 20 teachers.
With these types of layoffs, I’m afraid we will see class sizes increasing again in Lowell, after a sustained effort on the part of the superintendent and school committee to reduce class size in grades K-8 and protect these smaller classes through several tough budget sessions. Small class sizes are key to student success; this would be a step backward for Lowell schools and a disservice to students and families in the school system. The schools seem to be bearing a disproportionate amount of the burden of our budget problem – let’s go back to the drawing board and try to share the pain a little more equitably.