The plan was absurd from the start. There was never any public movement in North Andover to change the way the town disposes of its trash. The trash fee plan was little more than a scheme to transfer a chunk of money from the municipal side of the town ledger to the school side.

Now that the trash fee plan has failed, school leaders wasted little time carrying through on their threat to lay off teachers to close a $1.4 million deficit in the school budget. And they did so with an attitude that approaches vindictiveness.

"This town is going to get what they pay for," School Committee Chairman Al Perry said. "The budget cuts will affect every child. Not one child is going to be spared."

School officials cut 28 teaching positions from their budget Tuesday, the day after the Town Meeting vote. They made the cut before figuring out which positions will be lost and which schools will be affected. A literacy program and two more teacher aides will also be cut.

The haste with which the teacher cuts were made suggests school leaders are less interested in a careful analysis of programs and personnel needs than they are in making townspeople pay for their insolence in refusing to provide the funds demanded.

Even the School Committee itself cannot agree that cutting teachers is the only way to close the budget deficit.

Committee member Charles Ormsby has opposed many of the school board's recent budget decisions and been reviled by school supporters for it. He argues the town can save some teaching jobs by cutting the assistant superintendent's position, a principal's job and finding other savings. Assistant Superintendent Richard Bergeron has already expressed a desire to leave his post, saying it is not a good match for him.

"We need to find a way to minimize those cuts and not just make them to prove a point," Ormsby told our reporter.

Why the rush to cut teachers? Are Ormsby's proposals not even worth considering? They would be for a School Committee committed to better management of North Andover's schools.