Funding an additional first grade teacher at every school would cost about $200,000, Higgins said.
Mayor Mary Clare Higgins.NORTHAMPTON - The City Council gave final approval Thursday to a relatively non-controversial fiscal 2012 budget, appropriating $70.8 million in revenues for the general fund and signing off on three enterprise funds.
Although the total cost of running the city in fiscal 2012 is projected to be $93.5 million, the general fund portion is only $77.3 million, the remainder being self-replenishing enterprise funds for water, sewer and solid waste. Of the $77.3 million general fund, the council voted only on $70.8 million because it does not have oversight over some revenues, such as state aid. Funding from the state for fiscal 2012 is expected to decrease by $268,084, the fourth consecutive year the state has cut aid to Northampton.
The fiscal 2012 budget has been relatively smooth going for Mayor Mary Clare Higgins, who has had to either cut jobs or seek a Proposition 2 ½ override in recent years to achieve an even level of services. Higgins has crafted 12 budgets since she was first elected mayor in 2000, this being her last. She is leaving office in September to become director of Community Action, a human services agency in Greenfield. The council vote Thursday was unanimous and uncontentious.
In compiling her budget, Higgins has asked all city employees to agree to a wage freeze. The city is still in negotiations with the teachers union on that point. To save money on health costs, Higgins has also asked city workers to switch to a different plan with higher co-payments. All but the firefighters’ union agreed to the change.
The issue of the wage freeze came up indirectly Thursday as parents at the Robert K. Finn Ryan Road Elementary School lined up during the public comment session to ask that a first grade teaching position not be eliminated at the school. If that position is cut, as planned, it would leave the school with two first grade classes of 22 and 23 students. Parents feel those class sizes are too big.
Higgins explained that the City Council does not have the authority to add money to the budget or to move around money within the $23.9 million School Department budget. That number is now locked into place with the passage of the city budget, although the School Committee could still transfer funds within its budget when it votes on it next Thursday.
However, Higgins told the Ryan Road parents that all four elementary schools in Northampton anticipate almost identical first grade class sizes and said the city can’t give preferential treatment to their school.
“We can’t just put a teacher at Ryan Road,” she said.
Funding an additional first grade teacher at every school would cost about $200,000, Higgins said. She estimated the cost of hiring four aides at $140,000. The School Committee has already said that any additional expenditures would have to be compensated for by cutting jobs. Meanwhile, the teachers union, which is in negotiations over a new contract, is so upset that the school budget does not allow for salary increases that it has demanded the resignation of the entire School Committee. The School Department estimates it would have to cut 7.7 positions to fund those pay increases.