BEVERLY — The two-month-long school budget ordeal that City Councilor Pat Grimes described as "chaos" isn't over yet.
City councilors last night continued to hold out the possibility that they will cut up to $680,000 from the school budget, a move that would force Superintendent James Hayes and the School Committee to undertake even more cuts than have already been made.
The School Committee has voted to close McKeown School and eliminate 31.5 jobs. But some councilors said last night they are worried that the plan to keep five elementary schools open won't be affordable beyond a year or so. If it's not, the city would have to close another school next year, they said.
"I can't see moving the children around over and over and over," Councilor Maureen Troubetaris said. "It's wrong."
The $680,000 in question is money that Mayor Bill Scanlon has said he can give to the schools from the city side of the budget to keep open Cove School, which was also slated to close. The City Council hasn't cut the school budget in recent memory, but Council President Tim Flaherty told Hayes last night that the council must consider the possibility this year.
"If we said 'no' in the next couple of weeks to the $680,000, where would that put you?" Flaherty asked Hayes.
"I would not want you to do that," Hayes said.
"I understand," Flaherty said, "but we have a responsibility. No one wants to be here a year from now."
Hayes said it would be up to the School Committee to decide what to do if the council cut the $680,000. But he suggested it was too late to close another school and that the committee would have to make drastic cuts in programs instead.
Possibilities, he said, include eliminating funding for all sports and supporting them totally through user fees, or cutting a teaching team from the middle school, suggestions that have come up before.
The City Council is not due to vote until a week from Thursday, the final day of its ongoing budget review. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Monday.
If the council does cut the $680,000, Grimes said, "It's going to be only more chaos, not just for the city but for the children."
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