Watertown Town Officials Upset by Absence of Top School Officials at School Budget Meeting

Town Councilors, parents and others hoping to get more information about the school budget Wednesday night were disappointed as two key figures from the School Department – Superintendent Ann Koufman and Director of Business Services Allie Altman – missed the meeting.

The joint meeting between subcommittees of the Town Council and the School Committee was called to review the fiscal 2012 budget. While school officials could not provide much more detail than from , the Town Councilors had some recommendations for trimming the budget.

Before the budget discussion began, however, the Town Council, and town officials expressed their dismay over the absence of Koufman and Altman. Town Council member Vincent Piccirilli said he only learned the pair would not be there 15 minutes before the meeting.

School Committee Vice Chairman John Portz said both Koufman and Altman could not be at the meeting because they had “personal commitments that are very important for them.”

Town Councilor John Donohue, who is not on the council subcommittee, had sharper words when he heard the pair would not be there, saying “It’s a slap in the face to the parents of this town for them not to be attending,” according to a Twitter post by the Watertown Tab. Donohue left before the meeting ended.

School officials face a $2 million shortfall if they want to provide a level service budget – which maintains the staffing and programs offered this year in the Watertown Schools.

Many items have been examined in the search for ways to reduce the budget, including cutting a dozen or more staff positions. One thing that is not on the table is closing a school, specifically Cunniff School, said School Committee Chairman Anthony Paolillo.

“One thing we can absolutely take off the table is (closing) Cunniff,” Paolillo said. “It is not viable.”

Portz said the potential closing of a school was discussed because school officials had to figure out what the cost savings could be for a range of possible cuts. Closing a school would mean shifting the fifth-grade to the middle school and in turn the eighth grade to the high school. That would drive up busing costs, he said.

Town Manager Michael Driscoll said he was angered by the way school adminstrators released the possible school closing, but then took it off the table days later.

When the budget discussion got going Piccirilli presented some recommended budget cuts, which he said could bring the school budget down to a manageable number.

“We want to see how we can get (the shortfall) to zero without eliminating teachers,” Piccirilli said. “Ultimately it is the teachers who provide service to the kids.”

First, he said, the School Committee should consider not approving the 1.5 percent raise that school officials have negotiated with the teacher union, but have not yet approved. The cost, if the raise is also given to other school employees, would be $370,000.

Second, he said, school officials should examine places to cut that are not teacher salaries (non-teaching positions, materials, other expenses) and to have the School Committee request changes in the school union contracts to further reduce salary costs.

“Only as a last resort consider teacher layoffs,” Piccirilli said.

The Town Council subcommittee voted to make a non-binding, non-monetary recommendation to the School Committee following Piccirilli’s proposal.

School officials are balancing the desire to keep teachers with the recommendations from principals and other administrators, Paolillo said.

“We need to listen to the professional educators and what they think is educationally sound,” Paolillo said. “They may need (to fill) a technology position to make it work best (for instance).”

Town Councilor Tony Palomba, who is not on the subcommittee, said he thought that town officials should provide the School Committee with a figure for the town’s allocation to the school. That way they can have a number to work with so they can figure out how exactly how much they must cut.

Driscoll said he is working with all the departments in town to figure out their budget allocations, and it will take more time to nail down a figure. He did say that he expects the town to give some increase to the schools.

“If Local Aid comes in where it is now (from the latest state budget discussions), the school budget will not be at zero (percent increase),” Driscoll said. “It will be higher than zero.”

Both town and school officials agreed that some major budget items remain unknown, much of which lies with state officials. Those include the amount the town will get in Local Aid and how much they will get in the Special Education circuit breaker, which is proposed to be $400,000 in the governor’s budget.

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