Jan 10, 2008 11:21 pm US/Eastern
Fingers Pointed As Teachers Are Laid Off In Salem
SALEM (WBZ) ―
Closing a nearly $5 million budget deficit in Salem could cost dozens of school department employees their jobs this week, in the middle of the school year.
The proposed layoffs are expected to be announced on Friday and will include more than 30 full-time teachers.
The cuts are happening because the school district thought it had a budget surplus when in fact it is millions of dollars in the hole.
Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll blames Bruce Guy, the former school business manager, for the budget discrepancy.
"There were weaknesses that were exploited but that pales in comparison to the actions of this individual like overriding our system, concealing audits, doing things that were pretty devious," Driscoll said.
Driscoll said Guy told the school board and the city council that the district had a surplus when actually he had put them in a $4.7 million deficit.
"It's something we are struggling with," Driscoll said.
It's a struggle that includes some deep cuts that will be announced Friday. Some 18 elementary teachers, 4 middle school teachers and 11 high school teachers along with 45 staff members are expected to be laid off.
The cuts will likely mean larger class sizes and cuts to programs like art, music and sports.
Principals will have their work cut out for them with the cuts coming in the middle of the school year. In many cases they'll have to re-work class lists and schedules for both students and teachers.
Teachers have worked to make sure that even after the cuts class sizes will not exceed contractual limits of 28 students per class for kindergarten through fifth grade, and 30 students for the middle and high school classes.
"My sense is we will begin to climb out of this barrel at the end of this fiscal year as we head into next year," Driscoll said.
Calls to Bruce Guy went unanswered Thursday night.
At the end of the month Driscoll says the new audit will be done and she is turning the results over to police to see if civil charges or even criminal charges will be filed against Guy.
District officials said they don't believe Guy stole money but that it was a case of an accountant only giving the district good news and hiding or deceiving the council and board about the bad news.
Driscoll said she hopes when all is said and done the proposed cuts may not be as deep and the city could save some of the jobs.
Salem faced similar problems because of a budget deficit just two years ago.
In 2006, nearly 40 teachers, counselors, aides and custodians were laid off and the hours of a bunch of other staff members were cut in order save $1 million. Then they were facing a $3.5 million budget deficit.
The layoffs would take effect on Jan. 25.
You can read more on the Salem News website by
clicking here.
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