Several candidates for seats on the Cambridge School Committee agreed last week that dealing with the fiscal restraints imposed by the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 will be the school system's most difficult task in the months ahead.
Glenn S. Koocher '72, one of the two incumbents who addressed parents and teachers in a forum at the King Open School, said that there would be $5 million in cuts unless voters in the city override the spending limit imposed by Proposition 2 1/2.
Unless a school committee majority fights hard for good staff and teachers, Koocher added, the system's "standards of expertise" in teaching would be in jeopardy, a reference to the School Committee's ongoing dispute with the Cambridge Teachers Association (CTA) over which teachers to keep and which teachers to dismiss because of cuts in the budget.
Override
Mary Bessington, who retired as master of Cambridge's Fletcher School last year and is making her first run for the school committee, agreed that it was important for the city to press for the right to exceed the spending limits imposed by Prop. 2 1/2.
Bessington said she disagreed with the CTA's notion that all teachers are qualified and with the idea that simply because a teacher has been in the system for "10 or 12 years" he is qualified. What matters, Bessington said, is "what gets the job done for the children."
Read more in News
University Tries to Untangle Mystery of Mixed-Up CardsRecommended Articles
-
Proposition 2 1/2 Focus of School DebateThe most pressing concern of the Cambridge School Committee is to form long-term plans to deal with the fiscal constraints
-
Keeping Classrooms FunctioningHaving already lost $6 million in funds and between 140 and 150 teachers--and facing the prospect of losing another $6
-
Thirteen Cantabrigians Who Want to Run the City SchoolsHenrietta S. Attles Henrietta Attles, running for her second term on the CCA slate sees the discrepancy in reading scores
-
Cambridge School Superintendent Discusses Budget DeficitCambridge School Superintendent Bobbie D'Alessandro discussed the school system's $3.6 million budget deficit last night with around 40 parents at
-
Giving Kids the Options They NeedIn 1982, a released report shocked the nation. The National Commission on Excellence in Education found that "the educational foundations
-
A Charter Against BureaucracyIt is late on a Monday afternoon and Frederick A. Birkett, head of the Benjamin Banneker School in North Cambridge,