The School Committee last night called upon the City Council to restore funding to the district's budget for the next fiscal year to save faculty and staff whose jobs are on the chopping block.
Members voted to ask the council to restore roughly $3.4 million to the district's budget.
Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said if the request is approved by the City Council, it could increase property taxes, but also said the council may make other cuts to avoid raising those taxes.
The City Council could use a Proposition 21/2override to restore the funding. The council would have to approve the committee's request by a 2/3 vote.
Last night, several parents urged the committee to restore funding. Some criticized the budget process. One of those critics was Susan Burstein, former committee member and chief budget officer for the city of Newton.
"There is absolutely no reason the School Committee should not ask the City Council to restore these funds. Restoring these funds does not mean they have to make a choice between the municipal departments or the schools," she said. "Under the tax levy with the request of the school committee, they can help restore the funds and they have choices and multiple ways to accomplish this ... some of them won't raise taxes."
Initially, Superintendent Peter Azar proposed a budget of about $63 million, but McCarthy requested he cut around 5 percent due to falling revenue amid the poor economy.
McCarthy recently recommended a $59.4 million school budget to the City Council, based on proposed cuts in state aid.
During a School Committee meeting last week, Azar presented a proposal based on the mayor's recommendation that called for 54 layoffs, including 28 teachers, 13 paraprofessionals, four custodians, one painter, two secretarial positions, one information technology employee, two school adjustment counselors and three educational team leaders.
Instead, committee members voted to cut the district's fine arts director and human resources director positions, moving about $87,157 for the arts position and $90,000 for the human resources position back into a contingency budget, with hopes of using those funds to fill vacancies after pending teacher layoffs.
Last night, committee member Michael O'Halloran proposed the request for $3.4 million. That request did not call for restoring the human resources or fine arts directors' positions.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com
