Schools to cut budget by $300K

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February 17, 2009

By Cate Lecuyer The Salem News Tue Feb 17, 2009, 05:05 AM EST

BEVERLY — The School Committee will chop $300,000 from this year's budget, to cover a portion of the $709,000 in city cuts passed down from the state.

The mid-year reduction in funding prompted Mayor Bill Scanlon to order the city to restrict overtime to emergencies, leave job vacancies unfilled and freeze certain city accounts.

The school district will contribute by cutting $142,000 in special education expenses and substitute teachers, and plans to bring in an extra $158,000 in revenue to cover $300,000 of the cuts.

"We've just been more successful in collecting what's due to us," Superintendent James Hayes said about the additional money. It includes $88,000 in rent from the North Shore Education Consortium, but also $74,500 in fees that should be coming in.

However, it's also money that hasn't come in yet,

"It's banking on revenues we haven't collected yet," Ward 2 representative Paul Manzo said during a recent School Committee meeting.

President Annemarie Cesa agreed, saying there could be significant rise in utilities, or other expenses.

"We can have catastrophic costs between now and April 1," she said.

Mayor Bill Scanlon said the city is flexible.

"If we get a crisis, we'll figure out what to do," he said.

The cuts will come from an account for unforeseen special education costs that are usually reserved for children that move in and out of the district. It takes $75,000 out of the account, leaving a $58,000 balance. Hopefully, there will be no changes between now and the end of the school year, Hayes said.

Another $29,000 will come from money allocated toward the special education summer school, which was spent this summer. There was some funding left over because a portion of the program was paid for by a grant.

Hayes is also expecting to spend nearly $38,000 less for substitute teachers, leaving an account balance of $106,000.

In addition, all building budgets have been frozen, in the event the district needs more money.

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