Cambridge School Budget Gets Green Light

The Cambridge Public School Committee unanimously passed the district’s annual budget yesterday, after a committee newcomer proposed a last-minute motion to allot an additional $50,000 to each of the city’s elementary schools.

Although the motion introduced by first-term committee member Luc Schuster failed by a 5-2 vote, it raised concerns about the budget drafting process, complicating yesterday’s final vote on the $125 million school budget.

Committee member Patricia M. Nolan ’80 originally proposed a similar motion late last month, recommending that an extra $75,000 go to each elementary school.

“Resources have not shifted directly into our schools,” Nolan said. “I feel very strongly, based on what I’ve read and talking to educators, that the more successful schools are the ones in which principals have more control over how resources are spent in the schools.”

Kenneth E. Reeves ’72, School Committee chairman and Cambridge mayor, said that the motion potentially undermined the leadership of the superintendent, who drafted the initial version of the budget.

“I see this as an important vote in whether or not we support the educational leadership of the superintendent,” said Reeves, who voted with the majority to block the motion.

The last-minute disagreement arose because of the lack of time put into the budget drafting process, committee members said yesterday. The superintendent introduced the first draft to the committee early last month.

Although committee member Richard Harding said that there “is something lacking” in the current budget drafting process, he said changes to the budget should be introduced early, and he ultimately voted against the motion.

The Cambridge Public Schools superintendent, Thomas Fowler-Finn, said he sympathized with the frustrations expressed by the two first-term committee members, Nolan and Schuster.

“I do think it’s difficult for new members coming in in January,” he said, adding that the budget-drafting process requires a lot of time. “It’s an 18-month process in a lot of ways.”

But Fowler-Finn said he was optimistic about the budget.

“The eye is on the prize in terms of kids, and I mean that very sincerely,” he said. “In the long run, we’re all striving to do better by kids.”

—Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.