Budget Woes Fails To Curtail Brookline Schools' Teaching Philosophy

As promised, the 2012 fiscal school budget contains cutbacks, but as Superintendent Bill Lupini pointed out during his message to the School Committee Thursday, the district will continue its tradition of emphasizing teaching despite the reductions.

“We believe the budget—while very, very difficult in terms of the reductions and the type of reductions we have proposed—is a balance between the strategic plan goals and fiscal realities,” said Lupini. “It continues to focus on teaching. The number of employees declines in this budget; the number of teachers increases by eight.”

The budget, which is slated to be voted on in April, currently contains several areas of reductions including:

• Eliminating 18.5 special education paraprofessional positions across eight elementary schools saving $467,000
• Cutting eight special education paraprofessionals at the high school level saving $201,000
• Also at the high school, eliminating three teaching positions, saving $192,000. Lupini said this can be done without significantly impacting class sizes and/or teaching loads.
• Removing two high school guidance counselor positions along with the Director of Professional Development and Special Initiatives saving $272,000 (This is partially offset by $50,000 for a specialized consultant service.)
• The Elementary Drama Department is proposed to have 1.10 full-time equivalent positions cut saving $70,000

School Committee member Barbara Scotto raised concerns over the eliminating the director of professional development, citing it as a “hot topic” and questioning the value of a consultant service.

“Is this overtime as effective?” said Scotto. “If we find out it isn’t, I would hope we restore the position.”

Counteracting the reductions are the increases, including five elementary school teaching positions costing $320,000. The positions will help deal with increasing enrollments at the elementary schools. There will also be two full-time equivalent elementary school positions with a $128,000 price tag. This will place specialists across five additional sections: art, music, physical education and elementary world language.

“We are holding the line on class size, particularly the student-teacher ratio,” said Chairwoman Rebecca Stone.