AUBURN – The School Committee eliminated an Auburn Middle School technology teacher Wednesday, making official the first of $350,000 in budget cuts requested by the City Council.
The School Committee discussed the $38,000 position for nearly an hour before seven members voted to cut it. One, Ted Belitsos, abstained.
He said he had planned to vote to eliminate the position until he learned that the City Council was restoring cuts to its own budget.
“Year after year we eliminate positions,” Belitsos said. “I’ve personally had enough.”
Fearful that taxes would get too high next year, city councilors last week sent administrators back to their proposed budgets and asked for $650,000 in cuts from the city and $350,000 in cuts from the schools.
Both staffs met those goals. But on Tuesday, councilors agreed to put back $122,000 in new city spending. The move saved two undetermined city jobs, a public works employee and a proposed police officer for Auburn schools.
Wednesday, Belitsos and other School Committee members fumed about the council’s decision to give $122,00 back to the city when they were still supposed to cut $350,000 from schools.
“It’s not a level playing field. It’s not fair,” said David Das. “They had no conscience about this at all.”
Still, Das and others voted to eliminate the technology teacher because they didn’t believe holding out would change the City Council’s directive. They also said delay would only end up costing the school system hundreds or thousands of dollars.
According to the teachers’ contract, the school system must give teachers 90 days’ notice before firing them. If the school system doesn’t, it must pay the affected teacher one day’s pay for every day’s notice it is short. Wednesday marked exactly 90 days before the start of the new school year.
“To delay it, delay it, delay it, hurts everyone,” Superintendent Barbara Eretzian said.
The cut will save the school system $38,000. The committee is also looking at cutting four other teaching positions, all through attrition, trimming $7,000 in overtime pay, cutting $8,900 in supplies and trimming $5,500 from the Adult Education program. It is also considering combining some middle and high school bus routes, which would save fuel and bus driver pay.
The committee is expected to vote on those changes in July.
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