Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/10/2015
WESTFIELD – Dealing with the $400,000 cut to the School Department’s budget handed down by the City Council, the School Committee met in a special meeting on July 6 to approve the changes. The committee passed the changes by a vote of 4-2, with Mayor Daniel Knapik and Cynthia Sullivan voting against it.
The cuts were $110,000 from electricity, $110,000 from natural gas, $91,000 from textbooks and workbooks, $28,000 from heating oil, $26,000 from special education in-state tuition, $20,000 from custodian supplies and $15,000 from software licenses.
Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion told the School Committee that the cuts were a gamble.
“In grappling with this most recent cut buy the City Council, we did hit the expense side of the house. We are gambling on a warmer winter, at least not a record breaking cold winter and the increased efficiency of our heating systems and the gas prices coming down and locking in on a very good rate on oil,” she said. “Nonetheless it’s very possible that we will be coming back to City Council looking for some funds in the middle of the year if we run into any unexpected expenses.”
Sullivan said she was not pleased with having to make additional cuts, especially when it depends on something as unpredictable as winter weather.
“We could have another horrible year. I don’t think anyone in this room could predict if we’d have another year like we did last year. We hope we don’t. I pray we don’t, but we could,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to have to go in front of the City Council, and I don’t like to do that because it makes it look like we did not budget properly when we’ve tried to and we’ve got another $400,000 to cut from our budget, which was already tight to begin with.”
The School Department budget is now about $57.9 million for the year. In order to meet the demands of the budget, 16 teachers were not hired back and 14 other positions were not refilled due to retirement and attrition. The School Department is the only city department that needed to let employees go, and though Scallion said she was able to hire three back, it is not enough.
“Without any doubt this is the tightest budget that we have run in my five years here, and I’m concerned. I’m concerned because we’re making good progress,” Scallion said. “I’m concerned because we’re on a trajectory of improvement and these kinds of cuts hurt. Every single person in a system matters to some student somewhere in the system.”
Scallion said while last year 116 students in the high school achieved a score of three or high on Advanced Placement (AP) tests, this school year, 169 students did.
“That’s unbelievable,” she said. “Good things are happening. We want to keep it going.”
School Committee member Kevin Sullivan said the department is used to making the most out of what it gets.
“We’ve obviously been able to do more with less, as the AP scores show, but unfortunately, that trend may have to continue,” he said.
The concern raised about the cuts from committee members was the eventual possibility of having to go before the City Council for additional funds in the middle of the fiscal year if there is a harsh winter or something unexpected comes up.
“The budget was tight when we met at South Middle School the first night, and it’s just gotten tighter and together,” Kevin Sullivan said. “There’s no room for margin … If we’ve got something that hits the system, it’s going to be very difficult.”
For Cynthia Sullivan, asking the council for additional money should be reserved for something that is unplanned.
“I don’t like having to go back to the City Council unless it’s unforeseen,” she said. “Cutting this and going back in January and saying it was unforeseen isn’t true. We have it in the budget. We cut staff to make this happen.”