BEVERLY — Faced with budget cuts, the schools' director of food services, Martha Jo Fritz, plans to give up her city benefits and get married a year early.
Fritz is moving up her wedding to qualify for her soon-to-be husband's health insurance plan, and is taking a voluntary salary reduction to offset proposed cuts that would create a domino effect of lost hours and benefits for cafeteria workers.
"I still think it's better than going with a management company, where everyone could lose their job or they would be making a whole lot less," Fritz said.
A proposal, which the School Committee will discuss Thursday at a public hearing on next year's budget, calls for a savings of $75,826 by reducing cafeteria workers' hours to 191/2 per week so they're no longer eligible for health insurance.
Nearly 50 food services employees and bus drivers — who may face a similar scenario — picketed outside a School Committee meeting earlier this week.
Under the plan, nine cafeteria workers would go from 30 or 35 hours a week to 191/2 or less, Fritz said. Six of those who currently take benefits would lose them. Fritz said the shifts still need to be covered, so she would have to hire more part-timers to fill in the gaps.
"You're talking about adding eight or nine more employees," she said.
To help pay for more part-time workers, six managers and a clerk would also lose five or six hours a week, and Fritz would give up her benefits and at least a week's pay. She makes $71,042 a year, with a 200-day contract. Kitchen managers make between $16.51 and $20.41 an hour, and cafeteria workers make between $12.34 and $14.88 an hour.
Students would get the same level of service and the same food choices.
"I'm not saying it's the best solution," she said. "But I'm going to do everything I can do make sure it stays public."
School Committee members have discussed the option of contracting out food services, as well as other services like busing.
Bus drivers face a similar, 191/2-hour-week, which, if implemented, wouldn't take effect until next year. The city paid an outside consultant $5,000 to look at changes to the transportation department.
Separately, Transportation Director Bill Burke agreed to strip $75,000 from this year's budget to help retain teaching positions at Beverly High School. He has not disclosed what these cuts would be.
Between that, laying off a second administrative clerk, and a part-time high school clerk, the district will lay off three high school teachers instead of five. It's likely the positions will be in the core subjects of math, English, science and social studies — which could affect the high school's accreditation, Principal Sean Gallagher has said.
School Committee members also plan to raise fees for preschool, the Elementary Enrichment Center, and the elementary music program; eliminate preschool and kindergarten discounts for families with more than one child enrolled; and stop free busing for students who live between 11/2 and 2 miles from school.
Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salemnews.com
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