WORCESTER—Worcester School Committee member Dianna Biancheria’s motion to slash $500,000 from administration salaries and reallocate those monies for instructional materials and other purposes on behalf of students was firmly rejected during a two-hour budget hearing on Thursday.
Biancheria, Maureen Binienda and Kathleen Roy voted in favor of Biancheria’s motion, while Susan Mailman, Vanessa Alvarez, Molly McCullough, Alex Guardiola, Jermaine Johnson and Mayor Joseph Petty cast nays.
Discussion centered on the district’s attempt to deal with a $22 million budget deficit. The new budget will be addressed again at the school committee’s next meeting.
Biancheria, Binienda and Roy also presented a united front in voting “no” on more than $2 million targeted at personnel services — a 3% increase from the current fiscal year — and on the proposal of more than $25 million for special education tuition. The latter represents a 19% increase, mostly for out-of-district placements. They were outvoted, 6-3, in each instance.
In their opening statements and throughout the meeting, Biancheria and Binienda weighed in at length with questions, comments, and concerns about the spending plan put forward by Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez.
Biancheria and Binienda set the tone early on. Biancheria objected to school liaison officers (SLOs) being “disbanded” with $1 million going instead to Culture & Climate. She noted that 10 schools “need intervention,” that more than 45 classrooms are due to be shut down, that a large number of K-6 teachers are “pink slipped,” that the district is “losing educators” and that “meeting expectations” numbers are dropping in three categories.
Binienda: Central office is overstaffed
Binienda responded to Biancheria’s remarks by claiming that the central office is overstaffed and that salaries are excessively high. She pointed out that the superintendent, chief financial officer, and deputy superintendents all receive significant regular pay raises and longevity bonuses. For instance, she noted that the superintendent’s salary has increased from $265,000 to more than $304,000 under the new contract.
“That’s a lot of funding in that area and yet we are cutting key personnel elsewhere, including 67 special-education teachers,” said Binienda. Allowing for “34 positions in Climate & Culture” is another bad decision, she said. “To have these folks roam the corridors, maybe we should move the desks to the hallways.”
Mailman pointed the finger of blame at the state “for hurting us to the tune of $12 million and there’s a new charter school costing us $3 million.” That amounts to a $15 million hit and she is not happy about it, Mailman said.
McCullough also held the Commonwealth, “and the inflation factor,” accountable for the district’s predicament. McCullough added that “if we want quality people in place we have to pay them. I hate to cut anyone but this budget was thoughtfully put together.”
“We knew FY25 was going to be difficult,” Johnson said.
School committee addressed spending
Line by line, the school committee addressed spending for retirements, transportation, athletics and maintenance, coaches’ salaries, health insurance, workmen’s compensation, personnel services, special education tuition, instructional materials and miscellaneous education.
More than once, Biancheria made suggestions on how to save money. In dealing with legal settlements, for instance, she said an “in-house contract” might trim expenses “and we’d get quicker responses.” She also returned to the issue of “security guards,” saying their presence in the schools “shows we are paying attention.”
Biancheria and Binienda both questioned the accuracy of inventory regarding Chromebooks and Biancheria made a motion asking for a count on the number of Chromebooks that are provided “per school.”
“We are shortchanging students,” Biancheria said. “We should look at not just $75 per pupil but $100 for instructional materials.”
Her motion to make the administration “do with less” than what it is asking for was held by Johnson.
Biancheria pounced on the amount being spent on transportation. “I came up with over $20 million,” including 1.5 for a fueling station. “I hope I’m not right.”
Elimination of the St. Bernard’s Church
She protested the elimination of the St. Bernard’s Church gym in favor of a classroom setting without a basketball court for students in Challenge & Reach. The gym “is the piece they utilize most,” she said.
Spending under “miscellaneous education” ultimately led to Biancheria’s motion to look at administrative salaries to come up with “half a million” to fund areas she feels are not getting their fair share.
“Five hundred thousand in administration salaries?” asked Johnson. “We need to do this ourselves, right?”
“Yes, it is our job to cut,” Petty said. Petty then pressed Biancheria on “which positions” would be affected by her motion.
“I am not saying which positions,” Biancheria said before the vote was taken and her motion was defeated.
Rod Lee is a career journalist, a veteran of the media scene in Central Massachusetts and the author of seven books including the recently published “Gil Cristopher,” a novel about the difficulties associated with aging. He can be contacted at rodlee1963@gmail.com
