After the residents of Reading voted overwhelmingly not to approve a tax increase override in October, rumors have been swirling about what the possible repercussions will be for our schools. The override, supported mostly by local families with children in the school system, would have covered the projected deficit of 1.395 million dollars in the school budget, allowing schools to operate as planned for the next year.
Today, the Superintendent of Schools and the School Committee are forced with the task of drafting and ratifying a new budget plan that will cut costs from roughly 41.3 to 40 million dollars. As many students, parents, and teachers had feared, the proposed budget plan relies on the axing of personnel and programs to ease the massive costs of the deficit. In recent years, Reading has been no stranger to budget-induced layoffs, a total of 6.3 positions being quietly cut at the end of last school year. However, the new round of cuts that Superintendent Dr. John Doherty presented to the School Committee and community in attendance on January 19 far exceeded any previous cuts in scale, totaling to 13.4 eliminated positions. Similar numbers had been flying through the halls of RMHS in the days prior, although many figures were unbeknownst to teachers.
Other student rumors were also confirmed by Dr. Doherty in his somber three hour presentation, including the most major and most controversial plan: the virtual elimination of the foreign language program in the middle schools. In the proposed budget plan, foreign language classes for seventh graders will be cut completely, and eighth grade classes will become an elective. As of Monday, the Superintendent did not have any plans for how admission to the foreign language elective would be decided, but did note that that it would only be available for 200 students to enroll out of the roughly 300 in an eighth grade class. Dr. Doherty said that this process would be decided with the aid of middle school administrators, but has not yet been explored. As a result of these program cuts, five out of the seven foreign language teachers at the middle school will have their positions terminated, leaving only two teachers to commute between the two middle schools each day. Also planned for termination from the middle school curriculum is the double period of English Language Arts (ELA) that sixth graders are currently subject to. Moving forward, ELA will only be one period as are all other subjects for sixth graders. This cut will allow the removal of an additional .2 position per sixth grade English teacher, possibly resulting in the termination of one or more positions. Foreign language will be removed from the interdisciplinary model that the Superintendent highlighted as one of the systems that must be protected. It will then replaced by math, a department not currently part of the system in an effort to preserve it.
Changes at the high school involve cuts across the board, but sparing the math department which will remain untouched. The cuts will hit elective departments, business and art, especially hard. The previous graduation requirement of two business and two art electives will be eliminated starting with the incoming freshmen class of 2021, undoubtedly lowering enrollment in both departments. The high school visual arts section of the art department, which has in prior years offered courses including basics of art, painting, illustration, printmaking, figure studio, studio art, sculpture, graphic design, and AP studio art, will be reduced to two positions. This figure excludes a position that fulfills several photography classes. Serving as a reminder of the school system's unwillingly scrapped plans for the future of Reading arts will be room 223, the former classroom of beloved RMHS art teacher Veronique Latimer. Room 223 will be without an art teacher or art students for the foreseen future, a sad reality of our town's failure to invest in education, and specifically those subject areas outside of the STEM bracket.
Art, Business, and Foreign Language teachers worry for the future of their departments in the Reading school system in addition to worrying about their own job security. Relegated to the status of elective, enrollment will doubtlessly decline, especially in the high school where art and business classes will hold no tangible merit. In the ever-intensifying college applications process, which has shaped educational priorities in high schools across the country, the merit one receives for a class outweighs its educational value. Universities and colleges are much less concerned with the educational diversity of an applicant’s high school career than the cumulative GPA they receive. At RMHS, Art, Business, Physical Education, and Health have never been considered in a student’s grade point average, with the exception of AP Studio Art. The way that RMHS has previously circumvented a subsequent drop in enrollment is the graduation requirements and required credits. With these eliminated, there is no prerogative for enrollment or interest in business and the arts. Art teacher Susan Gilbert expressed concern for the future students who would never be exposed to the arts at RMHS, who would be less miss out on discovering a possible passion or career.
A crucial element of the proposed budget cuts is that they are not inevitable, and have yet to be approved by the school committee. Students and parents protesting the cuts have proposed a second, smaller tax override, offering Reading residents a chance for redemption after the weak initial turnout of eligible voters. A recent petition of current and former students requesting such an override has garnered over 80 signatures in the last 24 hours, a number which continues to rise. At a January 19th meeting in which town members and members of the school district were invited to voice their concerns about the potential cuts, history teacher Jeffrey Ryan and Reading Teachers’ Association president Eric Goldstein, proposed a similar override. Unlike the 7 million dollar town-wide override that was voted on in October, this new override would require only 1.395 million. All of the money from this override would be channeled directly into the school budget to fulfill the deficit and continue school operations as usual, without a need for any cuts in teaching positions or resources. This proposal differentiates from the prior one in that it will only sponsor education, not any other town departments and activities.
In Mr. Ryan’s opinion, this override is more feasible because it allocates money directly into the schools, which was a concern for many voters who believed that the issue of school funding was being used to pitch a large increase in town spending in other sectors. In order for this override to make it onto a ballot, the School Committee would have to vote to bring the override to the town’s Board of Selectman, who would vote whether or not to have another special election for the tax increase. From there on, the fate of the override would be in the hands of Reading residents.
While hopes for a new override that would save the middle school foreign language program, paraeducators in kindergarten classes, a range of rigor in courses at the high school, and many more programs and positions remain high, the general expectations of teachers and students alike remain low. After being let down by their neighbors this past October, those involved in the Reading Public School system have largely lost their faith in the town’s willingness to invest in our youth. In the eyes of many, Reading’s current education situation resembles that of Stoneham several years ago. Families left Stoneham, often for Reading, in order to secure a better education for their children after a failed tax override bid focused on the school system. Should the projected gaps in the Reading School System in comparison to our neighboring communities continue to grow, our town can expect a similar exodus of young taxpaying families, which will have a devastating effect on our local economy.
