Harvard voters sent town officials back to the budget drawing board at the April 1 election, and now the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, and the School Committee are struggling to find ways to present a budget voters are likely to accept.

At the April 18 Board of Selectmen meeting, convened for the sole purpose of dealing with the budget, Town Administrator Tim Bragan presented a proposal for three levels of increasingly severe cuts to the town budget, which would affect the DPW, Finance Department, Fire Department, and library—and ultimately residents. One of the options proposed more than $144,000 in nonschool cuts to get to a zero override, just one of the options officials hope to present to voters.
Bragan acknowledged “No department head will agree with it.”

Based on the proposed cuts to town departments, and using the traditional 70-30 split—where 70 percent of the cuts would come from the schools and 30 percent from the town—the School Committee has been challenged to find more than $300,000 in reductions as part of a zero-override option.

We were distressed to learn that what might be offered up for cuts by the school board to get to this level is teaching positions. Teachers are the people in the school department most responsible for the outstanding education received by Harvard students. They should be the last to go—turning out the lights and locking the doors behind them, if things ever get that bad.

One recent letter to the editor in the Press suggested that the schools take a look at cuts or changes in administrative staff, something we believe is worth consideration. There has been a lot of talk recently about running the town “as a business.” In private business, administrative positions are the first ones considered for changes or cuts when push comes to shove. People who write policies and procedures? Gone. Administrative assistants? Shared, or positions eliminated. In private business, layers of management are eliminated and organizations flattened. People are asked to do more with less. It’s painful and counter-productive, and no one likes it. But it can be done. These are times that call for tough decisions.

We hope the School Committee decides to take a second look at the school department’s administrative staff before it places teaching positions on the chopping block.