Town Slashes $428,000 From School Budget-This Day In Norwood History-June 20, 1978

Town Meeting Disregards School Board Warnings and Trims Near Half-Million in Education Funds

A major fiscal showdown concluded at town meeting as members voted to slash $428,000 from the school department’s request, finalizing the cuts after hours of intense debate. The finance committee, led by member Peter Barber, engineered the reductions to reflect savings intended from the imminent closing of local school buildings. Mr. Barber issued a stark ultimatum to the assembly, declaring: “If you do not close a school, the school committee will not either. This budget reduction will force them to do what they never known them to be the cognizance of the town and it is time we handled them properly.” Concurrently, Town Counsel Justin C. Barton advised members that if individual teacher contract requirements are denied, court action could be brought by 10 taxpayers to force a special town meeting. He added: “If they are successful in centering their case in court, the school committee will recover what you have cut plus 10 percent interest on the sum.”

The deep reductions were passed over the vocal objections of several school officials. School Committee Chairman Richard W. Kief countered that the school department would still have to pay teachers because the department had agreed to rehire them before the cuts were initiated. Mr. Kief clarified that he had been advised by an attorney for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that the town “might be open to litigation from the teachers’ association if the committee cut salaries of the long-term substitutes made in April.” Concurrently, School Committee member Mrs. Berkowitz, who voted in vain to bring the two boards together, urged her committee to look directly at the salary budget, noting that some of the teachers now on maternity leave who have indicated they might not return could be replaced with long-term substitutes.

The budget reduction targeted several distinct operational lines. Allocations were slashed by $103,372 in administrative salaries, eliminating funds for an elementary school principal and two secretaries. Special education funding was cut by $15,822, which the FinCom suggested be regained by utilizing O’Brien‘s legacy fund. Furthermore, a $70,051 reduction in teachers’ salaries was executed to bring the total salary line to $3,453,342, a cut representing four special services teachers and nine elementary school positions. Outside of salaries, town meeting cut $3,200 from high school security guards, $36,252 for athletic travel and expenses, $19,773 for textbooks, and $5,000 from custodial supplies.

Defending the school department’s programs amidst the reductions, Thomas DiPietro of District 5 urged members to vote against the finance committee’s budget cut, asserting that following last night’s votes on acoustic upgrades, the town should have supported the school program. He noted: “I think if $150,000 to $200,000 had been cut by the school committee, town meeting would have gone along with an assurance a school would be closed in 1979.” Conversely, town meeting member William Kegan, the school committee member who initiated the latest attempt at compromise, noted this was the first session of town meeting he has attended. John O’Brien opened last night’s debate with a lengthy plan in support of the school committee’s budget, but his support appeared to come mainly from the gallery of onlookers. To conclude the debate, Peter Kiley urged members to use a “scalpel” on the school budget instead of the ax used by the FinCom, warning that cutting blindly puts the committee in the position of having to go to court or making a hasty decision on a school closing.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger