Jan 17, 2008 4:00 pm US/Eastern
Some Salem Teachers To Keep Jobs
SALEM (WBZ) ―
It now appears at least 10 teachers who were going be laid off in Salem amidst a budget crisis, will keep their jobs.
A private fund raising effort has raised nearly $200,000 in an effort to save some jobs, and they're hoping to raise even more. Officials say every $20,000 raised is enough to save one person's job.
The Massachusetts Federation of Teachers donated $50,000 towards the effort, followed by $20,000 donations from the Salem Rotary Club, North Shore Medical Center, The Salem Five bank, and an anonymous donor.
Seven other donors, including Endicott College, raised the other $32,500.
Canisters will also be placed in all of the Salem schools to allow students to donate money towards saving the jobs of their librarians.
School officials announced last week that they would have to lay off 79 full-time employees including 29 teachers before the end of the school year in an effort to close a $4.7 million budget deficit.
The school department said Thursday that they will be first focusing on saving teachers' jobs, starting with those in elementary schools, because younger children have a more difficult time transitioning from one teacher to another.
The layoffs are set to take place on January 28th and were to include 13 elementary school teachers, seven middle school teachers and nine high school teachers.
Teachers learned their fate Friday while para-professionals and other school employees will get the bad news on Monday.
The cuts were also expected to 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 now have to re-work class lists and schedules for both students and teachers.
The budget deficit is being blamed on mismanagement by the school department's former business manager, Bruce Guy.
Salem mayor Kimberly Driscoll says that at the end of the month a new audit will be done, and she plans to turn those 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.
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 several other staff members were cut in order save $1 million. Then they were facing a $3.5 million budget deficit.
Every little bit of money helps, and if you'd like to donate, you can make out a check to the Salem Education Foundation and mail it or drop it off at Salem City Hall, 93 Washington Street, Salem, MA, 01970.
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