The reduced staff, including more than 70 paraprofessionals, includes retirements, unfilled vacancies and layoffs.
SPRINGFIELD – A proposed $410.3 million school budget for next fiscal year includes the elimination of approximately 145 employee positions, including more than 70 paraprofessionals.
School officials, however, said the cut positions include many that will be achieved through attrition, including retirements and unfilled vacancies, and an unspecified number of layoffs. The actual number of layoffs likely will not be know until sometime in June, officials said.
The budget is increasing by approximately $8 million. The bulk of the school budget, $335.6 million, is the general fund financed primarily by state Chapter 70 aid and local funds.
The School Committee’s Budget and Finance Subcommittee reviewed the budget proposal on Wednesday, voting to forward it to the full committee. There is a public hearing Friday followed by a scheduled vote on the budget Tuesday.
Springfield School Committee member Christopher Collins said he believes the fiscal 2012 budget proposal has “fulfilled the School Committee’s goal to keep as many personnel as possible in the classroom for direct services to the children.”The budget subcommittee chairman, Christopher Collins, said he believes the budget proposal has “fulfilled the School Committee’s goal to keep as many personnel as possible in the classroom for direct services to the children.”
The budget proposal includes the elimination of: 20.5 teaching positions; six fine arts teaching positions at the middle school and high school levels; 31 instructional leadership specialists, four mediation specialists; five development life skill-certified nursing assistant positions; and 74 paraprofessionals.
Some of reductions were accomplished due to declining enrollment at the high school level, Collins said.
The reduction in paraprofessionals targeted the special education program, and was recommended by an audit of that program by the District Management Council, based in Boston, said Azell M. Cavaan, communications director for the School Department.
The audit determined that the use of paraprofessionals was excessive in the special education program as compared to similar districts nationwide, Cavaan said. The school system, as recommended, will increase the integration of the students into regular classrooms, Cavaan and Collins said.
Suzanne DeFranco, president of the paraprofessional association, could not be reached for comment.
Superintendent of Schools Alan J. Ingram and Chief Financial Officer Timothy J. Plante said recently they focused on keeping budget cuts from having a negative impact on class size or from hurting direct student services.
Timothy CollinsTimothy T. Collins, president of Springfield Education Association, representing teachers, said the true number of layoffs is not yet known.
Even with a drop in enrollment, “any time you reduce the number of adults working with children, you are going to impact the quality of education,” Timothy Collins said.
“If it was better times, we would be lobbying for more teachers so that we could reduce class size and more effectively meet the needs of the children,” Timothy Collins said.
Timothy and Christopher Collins are brothers. Christopher Collins said he has clearance from the state Ethics Committee to act on the school budget despite his family ties to the teacher union president.
The instructional leadership specialists’ duties included helping teachers design classroom curriculum, analyze information and implement programs, whose grant expired, Cavaan said.