Yeesh—talk about poor timing.
A week after the School Committee—well, most of the School Committee; more on that in a moment—voted to give Superintendent Alan Ingram a $12,000 raise, the committee’s budget subcommittee moved forward a new, $410.3 million budget that would eliminate 145 jobs from city schools. About half of those would be paraprofessional positions; 20.5 would be classroom teaching positions.
According to a report in this morning’s Republican by Pete Goonan, the exact number of School Department employees who’ll be getting pink slips is yet to be determined. “School officials … said the cuts will be achieved through attrition, including retirements and unfilled vacancies, and an unspecified number of layoffs,” Goonan wrote. “The actual number of layoffs likely will not be known until sometime in June.”
The full School Committee will vote on the budget next Tuesday, when many eyes will be watching School Committee member (and mayoral candidate) Antonette Pepe. Pepe worked for years as a paraprofessional in the city schools and served as president of the paras’ union. She was the only member of the School Committee to vote against Ingram’s pay raise, which brings his salary to $202,000—more than double the $95,000 earned by the mayor.
Mayor Domenic Sarno, chairman of the School Committee, voted in favor of the superintendent’s raise. Meanwhile, the third major candidate in this year’s mayor’s raise, City Council President Jose Tosado, last week called for Ingram’s raise to the rescinded.
In response to today’s School Department budget news, Tosado issued a new statement, calling on the superintendent to turn down the pay hike. Tosado said he understands the need to make tough budget decisions, adding, “Taking the approach of eliminating funded vacancies and attrition as it occurs is a fairly standard practice to reduce costs in a way that is least harmful to employees.”
But to eliminate positions while simultaneously giving the superintendent a 6 percent raise “sends the wrong message to students, parents, school staffers and the general community about the priorities of our public education system,” Tosado continued. He called on Ingram to reject the raise “as a symbolic measure to show support, understanding and solidarity with his education community. … Obviously, this will not remedy the fiscal woes of the school department but would go a long way in demonstrating leadership.”
