At a joint meeting
between the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee March 4, chaired
by Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston, officials debated various ways of
minimizing expenses – including a pay cut for teachers, introducing
activities fees and merging redundant operations between the city and
the schools.

(Full disclosure: Managing Editor James Norton represents Ward 4 on the Somerville School Committee.)

Among
the proposed budget cutting measures is a one-time 1.92 percent cut in
what would have been a 3 percent pay raise for teachers. Ward 1
Alderman Bill Roche asked whether these cuts would be permanent.

"If
the crisis somehow got solved we would look at some kind of measure to
repair what we had to do," Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi said, "but
the short answer is this is a one-time measure."

Ward 7 Alderman
Bob Trane asked why so many of the proposed cutbacks circulated among
the School Committee related to the classroom instead of administrative
positions.

"If I'm going to start cutting from the budget, the last thing I'd want to do is start cutting from the classroom," Trane said.

"We
heavily spend in the classroom," Pierantozzi responded. "That's where
our operations budget is spent. Therefore there's nowhere else for me
to take our operations (reductions)."

The ultimate decision on
making budget cuts, according to Heuston, lies with the Board of
Aldermen. The School Committee will then reach the set number on a line
item basis, with a more finalized list of

possible cuts to be discussed at the March 16 School Committee meeting.

The
committee plans to hold a public hearing on the FY 2010 budget in May.
Mayor Joseph Curtatone has not given an estimate on what the potential
shortfall could be, but Chief Financial Officer Edward Bean said it
could be as much as $8.6 million.

"We're shooting at a moving
target here," Bean said. "It's very hard to say exactly what that
number's going to be at this point of time. We need to think out of the
box and think of some serious structural
reform."