Local Schools Raise Budget

Despite economic turmoil, the Cambridge Public School Committee announced a proposed 2.19 percent increase in the budget last night for the 2009-2010 school year, though the school system will still have to cut over $2 million in expenditures to balance the higher budget.

Committee and Schools officials repeatedly said no personnel cuts will be made due to budgetary concerns, though a presentation given by Interim Superintendent Carolyn Turk said part of the $2 million would be made up through “adjusted staffing” for curricular or enrollment reasons.

“We’re making reductions in every possible non-staff way,” said Schools spokesman Justin T. Martin. “I don’t believe we have any layoffs due to budget cuts.”

The proposed budget would also bring nine new jobs to the school system.

In addition to staffing changes for curricular and enrollment reasons, cutbacks were made in administrative non-salary items, capital and technology, the budget for substitute teachers, and discretionary funds at elementary schools.

Turk and her senior staff met with every principal and every department head to discuss the budget and develop a viable plan, she said. Almost all of the principles of Cambridge’s 12 elementary schools were in attendance at the meeting, in addition to the principal of the system’s only high school, Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

Nearly three-quarters of the budget—74.5 percent—is allocated to expenditures in schools, roughly the same proportion as last year.

The budget would preserve small elementary class size and keep the student teacher ratio at about 18:1.

Three new kindergarten classrooms were also included in the budget, as projected kindergarten enrollment in the coming academic year is projected to rise almost 7 percent to 800 children. According to James Maloney, the chief operating officer for the Cambridge Public Schools, these classrooms may be in the Tobin School, the Morse School, the King School, and/or the Cambridgeport School.

Overall, the School Committee members responded positively to the proposed budget.

Nancy Tauber said that she was “extremely pleased” and Fred Fantini said that this was “the smoothest budget process” he had seen.

Patricia M. Nolan ’80 called the financial crisis “the perfect storm for Cambridge,” because a recession could decrease private school enrollment and bring more funding to public school system, which get more funding when their enrollment grows.

Nolan said the growing school age population in the city, in conjunction with the financial crisis, could add 20 and 100 children to Cambridge public schools,

But both Marc McGovern and Nolan criticized the budget’s lack of funding for additional social workers or psychologists in the school system. A social worker himself, McGovern said the presence of social workers “is directly related to achievement” and “contributes to a healthier student climate.”

The proposed budget will be voted on April 7.

—Staff writer Sofia Groopman can be reached at Segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.