Supt. Priya Tahiliani said assurances from state government two weeks ago have led them to be confident the Everett Public Schools do not have to lay off any more workers, and in fact, they might be able to bring some people back who were laid off in late May due to the uncertainties of funding.
“We received a positive update on our budget last week that confirms we won’t have to make further cuts than we already did in the spring,” she said. “That funding reassurance coupled with several grants we received allows us to potentially look at our previously eliminated positions that could be used to support our e-Learning Centers as well as our entire district on the whole in the upcoming year.”
Her comments came at the tail end of an Emergency Meeting held last Thursday, Aug. 6, of the School Committee to discuss the upcoming school term plan for returning to classes. The cuts were made in May to close what was a suspected $2.8 million funding gap. Two weeks ago, the State Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker provided assurances to School Districts and municipal governments that they would be level funded from the previous year, and there would also be built-in pots of money to account for inflation so that the funding wouldn’t equal out to be a cut. She said as the new opportunities become available due to the more solid ground on the budget, the positions would be posted publicly and the School Department would work with the Everett Teachers Association (ETA) to bring back employees still interested in returning