By Andrew Coen
Fitzsimons addressed the budget as part of his first superintendent's report after being sworn in as the district's new head of the schools. "There are going to be some serious constraints placed on us as a result of the contingency budget, but nevertheless, I think we have an obligation to move forward and do the best that we can," Fitzsimons said. "Even though I would have liked to have come in with a yes vote on both the bond and the budget, we didn't get it. But I still think we have an obligation to pay attention to what the community is saying to us and to move forward. I'm delighted in many ways to be here because of the spirit I sense is here in this community, and with that I have a lot of optimism that we can move forward from this day on."
Toward the end of the meeting, when the nearly 30 people who showed up were free to make comments, some frustration at the budget failing overshadowed Fitzsimons' first day on the job.
One resident said, "This is a very sad night for our district, and I think to gloss over it in any way -- and I'm not suggesting that everyone is glossing over it -- is a mistake. There has been a trend for a number of years to see a downward spiral in this community, marked by a great deal of divisiveness and my continuing lack of confidence in the voters in the way money is spent in this district."
The same resident later expressed hope that the board would come up with a plan to make sure what happened this year doesn't happen next year. "I would hope that the board will be doing some things behind the scenes to develop a bold plan in the coming year as well as a projection for the next five years to try to put this district back on a level footing," he said.
Another resident asked about one of the cuts, $500,000 to Personnel in Private and Parochial Schools, where Lawrence Public School personnel go to private and parochial schools and offer special education services. Fitzsimons responded, "What we're going to try to do is provide those services but be very cognizant of the cost so that we can do it in the most cost-efficient way without denying the appropriate accommodations of those children."
According to Fitzsimons, despite the cuts, the students would not need to come to the public schools to get the services.
Other cuts include a $27,500 consultant for the new superintendent's transition, $20,000 in contractual items, $60,000 in BOCES services and $150,393 in community programs.
The cuts that were state-mandated were student supplies, community use of buildings and grounds, equipment, certain salary increases, reserves for workers' compensation, reserves for capital, reserves for approved absences and non-essential maintenance.
Frank Parise, who was unanimously elected to another term as school board president at the beginning of the meeting, explained that there are no total program cuts in the budget and that the cuts are a small percentage of the total program. He pointed out that the cut in BOCES is only 2 percent of the program.
Fitzsimons said that $757,893 in cuts, in addition to the state-mandated cuts, is not set in stone. "It may well be that I'll come back in a month or two and say, you know, we can find some savings here with little or no pain to programs," he said.
After Parise was approved as president, recently re-elected school board member Kathy Raquet Barry was nominated and unanimously voted in as vice president of the board.
The next school board meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 8:00 p.m. at the Lawrence Middle School Auditorium.
