METHUEN — Twenty-seven Methuen public school employees are slated to be laid off July 1, Superintendent Jeanne Whitten says.
The list includes 13 program assistants, 10 custodians and four physical education teachers. Also, officials plan to cut 14 assistant athletic coaches who work part time and receive stipends. Two musical instrument teaching positions will be left vacant, and no academic classroom teachers will be laid off, Whitten said.
Last night's School Committee budget workshop was standing-room only because so many students and teachers crammed the conference room in City Hall where it was held.
Whitten's proposed fiscal year 2010 budget is $57.6 million, the same amount as this year. But the new budget has to account for cost increases, such as contractual pay raises to staff, so officials have to cut to keep it balanced.
The committee usually doesn't allow public participation at workshops, but they let people speak last night and plead with them.
Without gym class, students will become bigger couch potatoes, said Methuen High freshman Leah Santone.
"Not everyone can afford a gym membership," she said.
"The health of our young citizens is a priority that should come far before the budget concerns," said Madison Aleksa, who just graduated from Methuen High.
Scott Yim, this year's Methuen High valedictorian who played varsity volleyball, said education is not only about academics.
"It's about being a well-rounded person," he said.
Janet Foley, a program assistant at Comprehensive Grammar School, asked the committee not to cut program assistants, saying they help students learning English and students with learning disabilities.
School officials said last week they planned to leave four band teacher positions unfilled. But Whitten said last night they're only planning to leave two instrumental teaching jobs vacant.
Methuen Ranger Band Parents Association President Paul Downing said that's better, "But it's still not optimal to save a band program."
The vacancies will mean that there will only be two instrumental teachers for all four grammar schools, Downing said.
Teachers union president Donna Gogas raised concerns about the cuts and said officials plan to lay off program assistants who are high in seniority and pay scale.
"We lost people who have been here for 25, 26 years," she said. "We're losing really, really good people."
Whitten responded by saying she cut by position, not by the person, and they cut those positions they think they can do without.
"If I had my druthers, none of this would happen," said the superintendent. "If I were a rich woman, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
Leaders are still figuring out what they will use the $4.3 million they are slated to receive in federal economic stimulus money over the next two years.
Gogas asked if the money could be used to save old jobs, rather than create new ones. Whitten said the jobs paid for with stimulus money have to fall into certain criteria.
"You can't just do it arbitrarily, you have to have a plan," she said.
And the money is gone after two years, Whitten and some committee members have repeatedly pointed out.
Whitten has attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to convince the teachers, nurses and secretaries unions to forgo or delay the raises they're slated to receive next year.
"If no one took a raise, there would be not a layoff in the district," she told City Councilors when she met with them last night during a recess in the School Committee meeting.
Whitten said she won't take a raise herself.
The School Committee meets again Monday night, and they vote on the budget June 29.
