BRAINTREE Holding signs and umbrellas, more than 100 people held a stand out in front of town hall Thursday afternoon to protest a proposed school budget which would eliminate 28 teacher jobs.
The group included parents and children, as well as teachers. They called on Mayor Charles Kokoros to use more of the town s pandemic assistance money and dip into the town s reserves, or rainy day funds, to save jobs. This is a hard time to reduce staff. This has been a challenging year for students, said Laura Branco of Hancock Street, the mother of two students in the Braintree schools. If a global pandemic for over a year isn t a rainy day, I don t know what is.
BRAINTREE – Most of the 28 teaching jobs that would be eliminated under the proposed school budget are because of enrollment declines, School Superintendent Frank Hackett told the school committee Monday night.
The proposed 2021-22 school budget of $74.68 million represents a 2 percent increase over the current budget, but is $2 million less than what Hackett said is needed to maintain current school programs. There are several positions we would reduce without the budget situation, Hackett said.
Among them are 10 teachers at the middle school, where enrollment is expected to fall by 80 to 100 students next year, Hackett said.
At the elementary level, nine classroom teacher jobs would be eliminated, also due to enrollment declines, the superintendent said.