TURNER — SAD 52 Superintendent Kimberly Brandt addressed the school board Thursday night, recommending seven positions be cut from the proposed $26.66 million budget for 2017-18.
The cuts are an attempt to lessen the impact on local taxes, which would be 9.71 percent higher under the current proposal.
“The administrative team was asked by the board to find ways to lessen the impact to the taxpayers in the towns,” Chairwoman Elizabeth Bullard. “And in their estimations, these things that they’re suggesting are means of doing that while impacting the smallest number of students.”
The $26.66 million spending plan is 4.26 percent more than this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Recommended cuts include a Leavitt Area High School Special Education teacher, a Tripp Middle School math intervention teacher, a high school English Language Learner education technician III, and a bus driver at Greene Central School.
Brandt also recommended merging the education technology coordinator and network manager positions.
These adjustments represent a 3 percent decrease in the local assessments.
Brandt announced other cuts, including eliminating a Turner Elementary School teacher, a Greene Central School teacher and a Leeds Central School teacher.
These cuts represent a 4 percent decrease in local assessments.
Eliminating the teaching positions would result in class sizes of 25 students.
“I would prefer that we don’t see any teacher positions cut,” board member Pamela Sirois of Greene said.
Some at the meeting had concerns about the recommended cuts, specifically the high school special education teacher.
“We struggle to see how we can easily meet the needs of those students coming up with those individual education plans and courses that they need,” high school special education teacher Sherri Pelletier said. “We see that as a hardship, for sure.”
The high school special education program has 15 seniors who will be graduating. Thirty eighth-graders from Tripp Middle School will be moving up to the high school.
“When you look at numbers in the classroom, they’re not just numbers, they’re kids,” Turner Primary School teacher April Hartford said. “We don’t look at the size of our classrooms, we look at the needs of our classrooms and that’s what I want you to do.”
The line-by-line review of the initial proposed budget will be done March 30 at Greene Central School. The board decided to keep the proposed budget as is for the review and to address the recommended cuts at another meeting.
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