School Committee Trimming Budget

The Mansfield School Committee met Tuesday and cut an additional $185,000 worth of positions from the fiscal year school 2012 budget.

Three $45,000 a year full-time positions were cut by the committee, including a guidance counselor for the and a school psychologist and a math specialist for the elementary schools. Also cut was a $50,000 teacher training program for increased professional development over the school year.

Also, the school committee discussed the possibility of reducing one reading teacher position at the from a full-time position to a part-time teaching position; lowering its yearlyfrom $45,000 to $18,000.The decision was put on hold until the next meeting. Other positions to be decided on later included two intensive needs special education teachers and two special education paraprofessional positions.

The committee members also formed a consensus to keep many of the potential positions in the budget. Included in this tentative list as of the meeting yesterday were six new teaching positions at the Qualters School, a dual-role teaching and remediation English language arts position at the Mansfield High School and a Library Media assistant at the . All of these positions are full-time equivalent, with a $45,000 salary each.

One job the committee debated to keep was an $85,000 assistant principal position at the Qualters Middle School. Chair Michael Trowbridge and Jean Miller were opposed to keeping this position on the budget. Superintendent Brenda Hodges discussed the fact that at the moment, there is one principal and one assistant principal at the school, with two teachers filling in when necessary.

"You're looking at [the size of the school] and also the age of students," Hodges said. "That's a huge transition age, and it takes a lot of support at that level. I think the middle school has struggled with having enough staff, both in teaching staff and administrative staff."

Qualters Principal Zeffro Gianetti added that while the two teachers help out with administrative duties when they can, they are also limited because most of the time they are teaching.

Other News:

• Mansfield Veterans Agent John Hogan, sent the committee an initiative to ask that students be allowed to donate up to a dollar for the construction of the . The committee voted to endorse this measure.
• The committee also voted to approve the institution of two reverse half-days during the biology MCAS testing. They agreed this would cut down on distraction, not hinder other students not taking the test and also gives the school a chance to provide a better testing environment.