A School Committee meeting last Wednesday presented the effects of a failed override vote, where the school budget would stay level-funding, leading to what Superintendent Tom Geary described as having “disastrous” effects on the district.
In his presentation, Geary revealed how every school would have cuts, including 15 total interventionists, classroom teachers, the district nurse, special education paraprofessionals, and the French program, bringing down Lynnfield’s available languages to just Spanish.
“This is a presentation I have absolutely no interest in giving. A lot of hard, difficult conversations have been had in the last few days with staff members,” Geary said. “As far as this presentation goes, I don’t support any of it. It’ll be very detrimental to us if it goes into effect.”
A level-funded budget means the district won’t get any more money than they received last year, as compared to the 11% increase Geary and the School Committee have requested.
With other rising costs like insurance and special education services, which need to be paid, administrators have had to figure out how they can make space for an additional $900,000 reduction in the least intrusive way possible.
Even though the positions will only be cut if the override fails to be approved by the town vote, contract requirements have meant Geary has had to notify staff over the past couple of weeks that they would be let go in this outcome.
“Staff in recent days, the last few days, have been mentioned of their status if the override fails,” Geary said. “We tried to do it the right way, but it’s awful. It’s not who we are as a town, it’s not what we want to do.”
Another negative impact he presented was class size increases at each level, with the largest classes for every grade before high school being estimated to exceed the district’s maximum guidelines.
Lynnfield Middle School class sizes would take the worst hit, with the projected largest classes exceeding 30 students for each grade level, a statistic that elicited a gasp from the packed room when shown at the meeting.
“If we increase class size, decrease offerings, we are not going to get to where we want to get to,” Geary said. “This age group of students, 10 to 14, they’re going through the most changes… and we’re going to give them the least resources. Someone mentioned to me, and they’re not wrong, ‘32 kids in a classroom turns into crowd control.’”
At the high school, a number of elective offerings would be cut, including environmental and sustainability science, creative writing, intro to engineering, and math for the trades.
Other overall reductions will be a special education behavior analyst, Orton Gillingham reading tutoring services, special education music therapy, professional development opportunities for teachers, and less capital for technology.
Increasing will be fees for sports and extracurricular, which is currently a $600 annual fee for all sports and $300 for extracurriculars, and would go up to $600 for the first sport, $400 for a second, $300 for a third, a $200 additional fee for hockey and football, and $400 for extracurricular.
“This isn’t great for families. This isn’t great for participation. At a time when the stock market’s doing what it’s doing, we’re asking families to dig into their pockets even deeper,” Geary said. “If you play two sports, the override would be cheaper.”
Busing would see cuts, as K-6 would switch to offering transportation only for families who live two or miles from school. Grades 7-12 would have no busing, and there would be no pay-to-ride option for those who live within that radius.
After Geary’s presentation, committee members spoke on many aspects, highlighting the layered impact these changes would have on students in their educational careers at Lynnfield schools.
“When we say 30 kids in a class in the middle school, in my opinion, from my experience, that’s curriculum-altering class size,” School Committee member Jim Dillon said. “The ripple effect of that is just so damaging in so many ways, it would completely change Lynnfield Middle School and what it is… the same applies to elementary.”
School Committee member Jamie Hayman echoed these sentiments, touching on the effects of these reductions, which he likened to “taking four hand grenades and throwing one in each school and blowing the whole thing up.”
“I hate to use that analogy, but it’s sad, it makes me sad for the kids, and I think we need to think about where our priorities really are,” Hayman said. “I like to believe that we won’t be in this position, but I feel like we need to talk as if we will be in this position.”
During public comment, two school nurses spoke to advocate for the Lynnfield Public Schools staff who this budget would impact.
Summer Street Elementary nurse Caitlin McCarthy commented on her support for Lead Nurse Toni Rebelo, whose position would be eliminated, which she says would be “a huge loss for our students and the community.”
Lynnfield Middle School nurse Christine Sheils read a letter from wellness educator Sheri Weeks, who spoke on the impact that these cuts would have on the Wellness Department.
“The proposed changes would eliminate one P.E. teacher at the elementary school, one P.E. teacher at the middle school, and one health education teacher at the high school,” Sheils said. “With the state of the current health crisis in our country, it saddens me that taking away a student’s opportunity for wellness education is even a consideration.”
