HAVERHILL — The district would have to wait a year to close St. James School and transfer its roughly 100 special needs students to Whittier Middle School, but it could move Whittier's students to Nettle Elementary School by September, the School Committee was told last night.
The committee is considering those and other cost-saving measures to keep some of the 43 teaching jobs and 16 other positions on the chopping block to bridge a $3.9 million budget gap for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Assistant Superintendent Kara Kosmes also told the committee last night it could restore more of the teaching jobs by closing Crowell Elementary School and sending its students to Golden Hill Elementary, and by redistricting fifth-graders from elementary schools to middle schools.
The redistricting proposal was made and then withdrawn last month by Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan in the face of parent opposition.
Buchanan's budget proposal does not close any schools, but it eliminates 59 jobs and some student programs and services.
"The budget we have given you (last week) is balanced," Kosmes said. "But the elementary school teacher cuts, the increasing class sizes, and the high school cuts are part of it. We're giving you options to put back some of that, if that's the direction you want to go in."
The School Department leases the St. James building from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and would save $280,000 per year in rent and about $70,000 per year in utility costs by moving to Whittier, Kosmes said.
The district's rental agreement with the church says it can leave St. James prior to the expiration of the lease with one year's notice, Kosmes said, adding that it would take at least six months to properly move the school's population and vocational programs to Whittier anyway.
Moving about 360 Whittier students to Nettle would save about $380,000 annually, mainly by eliminating eight nonteaching positions — one principal, one secretary, one teachers' aide, two guidance counselors, two custodians and a nurse. There also are about 360 students at Nettle, but space for up to 800 children in the district's newest school, Kosmes said.
Closing Crowell would save about $100,000 and redistricting the fifth grade about $50,000, Kosmes said.
Several School Committee members raised concerns over closing more city schools, but agreed to keep the measures on the table until they receive detailed information from school officials about how much larger classes would grow if all the teaching jobs are eliminated. The committee's next budget meeting is May 22 at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
"Consolidation may be good in the short term, but it may come back to haunt us down the line if our enrollments go up and we start having major overcrowding issues," committee member Scott Wood Jr. said.
School Committee President Kerry Fitzgerald said studies in the 1980s and 1990s recommended closing most of the city's old and small neighborhood schools, but that previous school committees and mayors have not had the political will to do it. The city has closed a handful of neighborhood schools since 2002, but many still remain.
"We should have consolidated and got rid of neighborhood schools years ago like Methuen did," Fitzgerald said. "They have only seven schools, including only a few very large elementary schools, and they are in much better financial shape than us."
School superintendent's plan to close $3.9 million budget hole
On the chopping block
r Regular elementary school teachers: 27
r Elementary school art, music and physical education teachers: 6
r Kindergarten teachers: 2
r Regular high school teachers: 8
r High school special education teacher: 1
r Special education teachers' aides: 6
r Administrators: 3
r Teaching specialists: 1
r Computer technician: 1
r Special education: $200,000
r Utilities and telephone: $150,000
r Maintenance: $65,000
r Computer hardware: $35,000
r Health care savings due to job cuts: $540,000
