Superintendent O'Brien: 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul' budget moves

By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent

SMITHFIELD - The School Committee Monday night gave Superintendent Robert O'Brien permission to rescind six of the 24 teacher layoff notices sent in March, and is likely to approve rescinding six more notices at its next meeting, May 19.

Additionally, the committee voted to save $100,000 by putting high school and middle school students on the same buses.

O'Brien said the decisions to rescind layoffs are coming after what he termed hard choices in cutting other areas of the coming year's school budget.

He said he has decided to move $300,000 earmarked in a capital account for building repairs into the operational budget to help bring teachers back, adding that "I'm taking a roll of the dice" in hoping that structural emergencies don't crop up.

It has been estimated that on average it costs some $65,000 to return one laid-off teacher to the classroom.

O'Brien said money to return the next six teachers will come from the probable dropping of six new teaching positions he had requested over the next year - positions that will now likely go unfilled.

A total of 11 new positions had been sought, with five already cut previously to help balance a budget that school officials say is some $2 million less than needed over the next year.

About the busing change, the committee approved reducing from four to three the number of times school buses go out each day - doing that by putting middle school and high school students together on the same buses.

The move, which O'Brien said will save $100,000, means the high school will start and finish each day 20 minutes later - the starting time will now be 7:30 - a move he said will be greeted with joy by early-bird students who will appreciate the additional morning sleep time. He said the majority of high school upperclassmen don't ride the buses.

Noting that school buses get only 6 miles a gallon and that the cost of their diesel fuel has skyrocketed, O'Brien said fuel costs are already some $100,000 higher than projected.

The superintendent said he regrets being unable to fill the new teaching positions that were budgeted, because "It's what we need to move the system forward," but that the priority must be to re-hire as many existing teachers as possible.

The six notices approved for rescinding on Monday had gone to a reading and a math teacher at the middle school, and to math, social studies, reading and guidance teachers at the high school.

Committee Chairwoman Virginia Harnois said those teachers were chosen to be returned first because they deal with specialty subjects and could be in demand elsewhere - meaning they might not be available if they were called back at a later date.

O'Brien said he'll continue to seek budget cuts in an attempt to bring back as many existing teachers as possible, but that as the process continues it will be a difficult exercise in "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

- Reach Gerry Goldstein at gerry76@cox.net.