Librarians to Be Rehired, With Budgetary Conditions

Two librarians will be rehired, and reading programs will be restructured, as part of an effort to fix an unexpected deficit in the FY14 schools budget and maintain some level of services – contingent upon $150,000 in funding from the state.

Superintendent Kevin Hutchinson presented a plan to the School Committee Tuesday night to help alleviate the impact of recent cuts to reading teachers, tutors and librarians. The Committee approved the plan 4-1, with Committee member Laurie Burzlaff opposed.

In June, Hutchinson announced that there would be several layoffs due to an unforeseen shortfall of about $670,000 in the FY14 budget, primarily because of a spike in special education costs.

"As you know, while we are unable to predict the number of students who will be moving into the district and who will need special services, the district is obligated by law to cover those costs," he wrote in a letter then.

Before May 1, there were 69 out-of district students coming to North Andover schools. After May 1, there are 76. Without an increase to the circuit breaker program, the new total out-of district tuition cost of $4,796,489, creates a $497,748 deficit.

Three teachers (covering two positions) were cut as well as several reading tuturs and two librarians, the elementary school librarian and high school librarian. The middle school librarian, who had seniority, was to be moved to the high school, leaving the lower grades with virtually no library services.

Under the new plan, the two librarians will be rehired for their respective schools and the middle school librarian will go back to the middle school. All other teacher and tutor cuts and non-union furlough days will stay. In addition, the committee will “scrub” the budget for more spending cuts.

Contingency

The plan depends on the governor’s budget, to be set later this week. The town is anticipating $313,000, of which the Town Manager agreed the schools would receive $150,000, combined with a potential $135,000 from the district’s $150,000 special education contingency fund  (in addition to the remaining teacher and staff cuts) to offset the unanticipated costs of out-of-district special education tuition, something that made some committee members uncomfortable.

"I don't think we should be touching the contingency at all," Burzlaff said. "That's what got us in this situation in the first place." She added that she wants to see $500,000 in the contingency plan, in case more out-of-district special needs students transfer into North Andover, rather than spend the contingency now.

Committee member Stan Limpert disagreed, saying that’s what the fund is there for.

“Isn’t that why we set aside the money, if he have unexpected unusual expenses?” he said. “This is like the town’s stabilization fund. We have it but we never use it.”

If the district receives more Title 1 funding, that can only be used for Title 1 schools, which are school choice schools. Title 1 eligibility is based on the federal census, which had the district dipping below a 5 percent threshold, even though that was not reflected in reality of the district. The district went from $309,000 to $180,000 in Title 1 funding in a span of one year.

Also, the middle school is not a Title 1 school. This is because the town only has one middle school so making it school choice could result in massive overcrowding.

All Hands on Deck

With no funding to restore the reading teachers and tutors, Hutchinson presented what he called an “All hands on Deck” approach.

This consists of “extension blocks,” a set amount of time out of each day dedicated to reading help, separate from regular class time. There would be different times set for various grade levels, which would allow participating faculty members to provide reading help to all grades. Time spent on other things would have to be adjusted according to need.

“When it comes time to addressing the needs of students and you have limited means of resources, you want to look at how we use staff in schools and when we might reemploy people,” Hutchinson said. “Schools that really increase student learning do whatever it takes with whatever they have… While we all can say the reading teacher cuts will have an impact, it's our job to negate that impact."

There seemed to be an unintended debate about the benefits of keeping librarians compared with the benefit of keeping reading tutors. All agreed on the importance of both. But Burzlaff said she would rather have seen one librarian brought back and their time divided among grade levels, because librarians are full-time and reading tutors are part-time.

“I would have liked to see a more creative response where we could have balanced the reading and the librarians,” Burzlaff said. “I think that reading tutors, with what they do, we get the biggest bang for our buck. We’re not committed to a full year of employment like we are with librarians.”

On the other hand, librarians work with every student, and the district’s school libraries have seen a revitalization in recent years, as pointed out in a letter read at the meeting sent by former School Committee Chair Chris Nobile.

"When I was a principal at the Thomson School, just the work involved in getting that library set up and computerized, we had more than 40 parent volunteers and it was a lot of work,” Assistant Superintendent Gregg Gilligan said. “And I don't want us to forget that.”

Limpert echoed the appreciation for librarians.

“I think librarians because they potentially can touch every student in our district,” he said. ”I’ve been very grateful in the last few years that we've brought back librarians. I think librarians are incredibly important.”

Burzlaff and School Committee member Zora Warren wanted to hold off on voting until a future meeting – to see if the state provides the expected funding -- but there was concern that if they waited until August then the librarians may find other employment by then. So the rehiring depends on that expected funding.

And technically as Burzlaff pointed out, the School Committee didn’t even have to vote on the plan, since the budget would remain the same and Hutchinson could make the decision to reallocate funds. But Hutchinson said he wanted consensus from the committee.