By James Lomuscio
Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon tonight presented the Board of Education with 20 line item recommended cuts totaling $250,000—the amount the Board of Finance cut from the school board’s 2011-12 proposed operating budget.
Staples High School junior and senior students attended tonight’s Westport Board of Education meeting as part of their government studies course. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
The school board did not seek restoration, and last week the Representative Town Meeting finalized the budget at $98.1 million.
From postage and printing pullbacks to cutting summer hours for guidance counselors and psychologists to shifting furniture and art kilns from one school to another, all of the proposed cuts were designed to have the least impact on students, Landon said.
While most of the line items were in the $3,000 to $10,000 range, the biggest absorption came from taking $100,000 from the health insurance reserve, an amount made possible due to savings gained by switching from Anthem to Cigna, said Landon.
The school board is expected to vote on the proposed cuts at its May 23 meeting.
“I thought they are as good as can be expected because none of them have any impact on the classroom,” said Donald O’Day, school board chairman.
Among the proposed cuts were: $5,800 saved by reducing the weekly time of a special education, physical education teacher; a $34,800 savings though an ESOL (English as a Second Language) staff reduction from 4.6 to 4; cutting guidance and psychologist services five days during the summer to save a total of $10,000; and by having “student ambassadors” instead of teachers conduct freshman orientation at Staples High School to save $15,000.
Other cuts include: reduced printing and mailings netting $10,000; postponing accreditation for two years to save $12,000, and saving $7,000 in salary costs due to the retirement of a school nurse, the replacement for which would be paid at a lower scale.
Landon even managed to squeeze out $3,300 by moving several desks and chairs from Staples to the Kings Highway School, “making these purchases unnecessary.”
“As with all the cuts, we spoke with the school principals to see where it was feasible to make these cuts,” said Landon.
