Tiano proposes $618G in cuts for fiscal ’16

CHELMSFORD — Eliminating two McCarthy Middle School teachers, not reinstating two curriculum coordinators cut during the current school year, bringing substitutes in house and lowering copying costs are among a number of cuts school administrators have proposed in order to meet available funding in fiscal 2016.

At Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, Superintendent of Schools Frank Tiano presented budget cuts totaling $618,681, just $257 shy of the amount the schools need to cut from their fiscal 2016 budget to stay within the $52.4 million Town Manager Paul Cohen has said he can dedicate to the School Department next year. The schools had initially requested about $53 million.

In response to an earlier budget deficit, Tiano had eliminated three administrator positions: the science and English language-arts curriculum coordinators and the district library-services coordinator, who had also served as high-school librarian. As a result, the existing math and social-studies coordinators had respectively taken on science and English language arts and received stipends for the additional work.

The intention was to reinstate the science and ELA coordinators and the librarian in fiscal 2016, which begins July 1, but now the librarian may be the only one added back next year. Tiano said that while the current system isn’t ideal, it is working, so he is again targeting the curriculum coordinator positions for cuts.

“This is, again, not something we want to do,” Tiano said. “But while you’re talking about a system that’s in place already to manage this, as opposed to the reduction of another staff member, another administrator — and if that’s the will of the committee, then we will go in that direction — but right now I think we feel confident in terms of what we have in place.”

The positions are expected to free up nearly $200,000, but about $28,000 is expected to be needed for the stipends for the administrators pulling double duty and other teachers taking on related responsibilities as facilitators.

Eliminating two fifth-grade teachers at McCarthy through attrition will free up about $100,000, but will increase class sizes from 20 to 25, Tiano said. Other personnel cuts in the list include a part-time kindergarten teacher at Harrington Elementary School, two middle-school recess aides and a part-time music instructor for the Chelmsford Integrated Preschool program.

Facing escalating substitute-teacher costs, Tiano said the district may no longer be able to afford Kelly Services, the “Cadillac” of substitute services it has been utilizing for many years. Ken Storlazzi, human-resources director for the schools, researched how other towns handle their substitutes and found that a savings could be gleaned by bringing the service in-house and using the same software program that Kelly Services uses, Aesop, to track teacher absences and assign substitutes. This is expected to generate $125,000 in savings, after the $44,000 cost to hire someone for the job of coordinating subs.

The district’s contract with Kelly Services is up at the end of the current fiscal year.

Currently, the high-school serves as the copy center for the district, Tiano said, with two Ricoh employees in charge of all copies for the schools. He is proposing to eliminate one of these employees from the Ricoh Management Services contract for a savings of $70,000, but also adding back a district-paid copy clerk at Parker Middle School at a cost of $15,800.

Other reductions were proposed in the areas of athletic uniforms and supplies, classroom furniture, teacher conferences, textbooks and supplies, late buses and summer curriculum writing.

The School Committee did not vote on the proposed cuts Tuesday, and will continue the conversation at its next meeting scheduled for next Tuesday.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter and Tout @alanamelanson.