Newton Cuts More Than 100 Aides, Support Staff Amid Tight Budget

NEWTON, MA — School districts, including Newton, are scrambling to find ways to save money as the coronavirus crisis threatens state and local funding, despite an overall increase in budget this year.

Newton teachers union president Mike Zilles told CBS that some 117 teacher’s aides and support staff received non-renewal notices. In a letter sent to the paraprofessionals who were contracted on a year-to-year basis, Newton officials said they had to prioritize the best interests of the students and consider district staffing needs and "budgetary factors."

But School Committee officials stressed to Patch that those who were told their contract would not be renewed, were only hired on a year-to-year basis. While most Newton Public School staff are permanent, long-term employees, the district also has staff contracted annually. In a typical year, the district examines these contracts to determine which positions to renew, according to district officials. Throughout the past five years, about 50 positions on average have not been renewed.

"This is no typical year," said Newton School committee members in a statement, "as schools navigate the disruption to educational models and budgets caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that we are still uncertain what school will look like next year, infinitely complicates NPS’s staffing decisions. Non-renewal of these contracts allows the district the flexibility to hire the highly qualified, differentiated skilled team we will need to provide the services all of our students require for both special and general education."

For the coming year, the district said it would not renew the yearly contract of a little more than 100 of its 700 Unit C paraprofessionals. Unit C includes special education aides, behavior therapists, classroom aides and other educational assistants.

Newton district officials said they were working on a range of scenarios with a variety of educational models. Adding the district has no plans to alter the staffing models for teachers, administrators, curriculum coordinators, deans, department heads and assistant principals.

This year, even as state funding for Chapter 70 and Circuit Breaker is predicted to be plummet amid the coronavirus, the school budget is projected to increase by $8,273,000 from last.

"The most significant part of our budget (87%) is devoted to the salaries and benefits of our dedicated and skilled faculty and staff members who educate and support our students," said Superintendent David Fleishman in a letter attached to the approved budget. "The newly ratified contracts for our educators help to ensure that Newton will continue to hire and retain highly skilled and committed educators."

The reorganization of the Human Resources Department resulted in one less senior administrator position, and the superintendent said the plan was to bring more legal services in-house to reduce the legal-related budget.

The Newton Public Schools system-wide K-12 enrollment of 12,611 students in the 2019-20 year is a decrease of 74 students from the previous year. The FY21 budget is formulated based upon a projected 2020-21 enrollment of 12,596 students, a slight decrease from the current year, according to district officials. The 2021 operating budget is $244,645,343.

Utilities are expected to increase by $16,592, transportation is expected to rise by $12,000 - assuming the district still gets a final Circuit Breaker reimbursement of $6,389,538 for special education transportation costs.

The 2021 budget announced several of the cuts: including 0.5 full time equivalent English Language Learning teacher, because of a predicted drop in the enrollment of English language learners. The budget announced the reduction of a of 0.4 full-time-equivalent Instructional Technology Specialist staffing and 0.4 "FTE" assistant technology coordinator.

The budget noted the reduction of the equivalent of 1.4 elementary psychologist staff, and 1.4 full time equivelent of a middle school special education teachers where they were vacant during the past year. The budget noted a "reduction in high school special education staffing (TBD) due to a decrease in the number of IEPs."

Amid the financial uncertainty, Newton City Councilor Emily Norton is set to host a discussion of Newton Public Schools' finances with a short presentation by Matt Hills, a former Chair of the Newton School Committee, an appointee of Governor Baker to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Newton resident Paul Levy, who served as chair of the Newton Blue Ribbon Commission for Financial Resources in 2006 and 2007, will also be featured. There will be time for a Q&A on Monday, June 22. The discussion will last an hour, beginning at 6:45 p.m. online. Register in advance here to get more meeting details.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).Have a press release you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how to post a press release, a column, event or opinion piece.