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Other Peabody News:
More new faces join race for City Council
School board OKs reserves to offset fee hikes
School officials plan to train volunteers to staff elementary school
libraries
by Janelle Randazza
PEABODY – School Committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne is looking
for a miracle to save the jobs of nine library paraprofessionals in the
city’s elementary schools.
“Hopefully $72,000 will fall out of the sky to bring back the library
paraprofessionals,” she said. “The library is the heart of
the school and for many children, it’s a sad fact, but it may be
the only trip they’ll make to a library.”
Assistant Superintendent Joseph Mastrocola said the schools are looking
for community and parent volunteers to help keep the libraries running.
Last week Mastrocola detailed his idea to use volunteers, planning the
different types of expertise levels needed, promoting the need for as
many volunteers as possible by creating teams with names, providing matching
t-shirts, buttons or badges to increase the profiles of volunteers, providing
training and placing individuals based on skill and personality.
But it was a plan Dunne wasn’t sold on, and she voiced her skepticism,
adding she didn’t see the plan as a viable option to be up and running
by the fall.
She made a motion, which was passed by her colleagues, that if a surplus
is found in this year’s budget, it would be used as an expenditure
for the FY10 budget.
Mayor Michael Bonfanti then promptly called a three-minute recess to speak
to Dunne about her proposal.
The exact conversation was not revealed to the public, but some committee
members offered perfunctory protests to the mayor’s decision to
speak with Dunne in private.
“I can do anything I want,” Bonfanti said, later implying
there may be other funding options that could be used for the same purpose,
but would not say what they might be.
Bonfanti said later that he may have exhibited a poor choice of words,
but that his intentions were to maintain the propriety of the meeting.
“Saying, ‘I can do anything I want’ was a poor choice
of words in hindsight,” he said. “I did have the right to
ask for a recess, however, and my intention was to explain some details
to Ms. Dunne.”
Bonfanti said he had simply explained to Dunne that all surplus money
must go back to the city’s general fund.
“Her motion was improper and I felt it was more respectful to explain
that to her in private,” he said.
Bonfanti could not say if there were any potential monies to be used from
the city’s reserves at this time, saying the committee would have
to wait for final figures.
“It’s just too soon,” he said.
No action has been taken on the plans presented. |
