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| * Editor's Note: Last week, several departments within the Town of East Longmeadow were faced with the task of cutting and balancing their budgets. Read the July 5 edition of The Reminder for details about other departments. By Sarah M. Corigliano Assistant Managing Editor EAST LONGMEADOW Last Wednesday, Superintendent of East Longmeadow Schools Dr. Ed Costa personally handed out pink slips to 16 teachers and staff members as a result of the School Committee's cuts to the FY06 "level service" budget. "There were five goals the School Committee used in guiding [their decisions on what to eliminate and what to keep intact]," Costa explained. "Goal number one was to provide core academic grade-level services." He continued with: continue to adhere to federal and state laws mandating certain services/programs; to follow the site-based management philosophy and ask principals for their recommendations for areas to be cut; look for equity across the district when cutting so that one school does not survive the cuts while others bear the brunt. "And goal number five, which is where we started first, was that ultimately we had to reduce the budget by $633,196," Costa said. He said the voters' decision not to pass any of the overrides resulted in that amount being what had to be cut in order to balance the budget. He explained that the first place the School Committee looked for cuts was administration and the central office. "I have no assistant superintendents, we eliminated those positions years ago," Costa explained. Then they looked at each school in the district. "We are below state and national norms per student for administrators the majority of money is spent on instructional classroom expenses, which are teacher salaries and [items needed in class]," Costa added. In an open meeting Wednesday morning, the School Committee decided on the following cuts: elimination of the gifted and talented program across the district (four full time teachers) elimination of the high school reading position (one full time teacher) elimination of two physical education/health positions one at Meadowbrook and one shared between Mapleshade and Mountain View (two full time teachers) At the high school, one business teacher, one foreign language teacher and one family and consumer science teacher were eliminated (three full time teachers). elimination of two vocal music teachers, one at the high school and one at Meadowbrook (no actual layoff because the positions were open) elimination of one custodian elimination of three paraprofessionals from Birchland Park Middle School. Costa said that, while it's unfortunate that programs had to be cut back, or cut altogether, only eight actual people lost their jobs as a result of this process because eight of them were able to be moved to another open position which was not effected by the cutbacks. Costa said the district will call those people who did lose their jobs if any positions open for the next school year. "Tomorrow, if a teacher chooses to retire, or if someone has to leave because they're moving out of the area, we will call one of those [laid off] people back," he added. Costa added that he met with each staff member who was receiving a pink slip instead of sending the letters in the mail. "We didn't want to send them in the mail, I think that's a cheap way of doing things," he said. "I met personally with each employee today, even though I was the bearer of bad news, because I am respectful and appreciative of what the employees have done ... every one of them was respectful [about the layoff]. They were conssumate professionals." The last day of school was Thursday. |