To the editor:

On Monday, Feb. 10, the Dartmouth Public Schools presented their draft budget to the School Committee and it seems the schools will be downsizing for the third year in a row.

It may seem minor that the downsizing this year will only be by two positions. However, there will be a significant reallocation of human resources in order to provide for the increasing needs of our student population.  The current draft budget includes cutting nine “standard” teaching positions: Four elementary teachers, two middle school teachers, two high school teachers, and a teaching assistant position. This will result in further increases in class sizes across the district and at all grade levels; our schools are already above the state average in terms of class sizes.

During last year’s budget process, the schools were forced to cut 9.5 positions from the organization. However, not a single other department in town had to lose any positions on account of the budget. So what we are doing in the Town of Dartmouth is, we are placing the entire burden of the Town’s financial pressure squarely on the shoulders of our children and I think that is wrong.

The direct and tangible results of last year’s cuts are that my daughter’s class size increased by 33% between last year and this year, between 2^nd grade and 3^rd grade, and it seems it may increase again next year if this draft budget becomes the final version.

On top of this immediate problem, the longer term problem is that for the third year in a row the schools will be utilizing a savings account to fund a significant portion of the School’s operating expenditures.  The money in this savings account will run out in about two years, and if there is no plan in place to resolve that, the consequences will be extreme.

Anytime the Town is in financial peril, we look to the biggest line item in the budget, our schools, and ask them to absorb impact. However, there is one customer of the school department, the children of our town. Not a single adult in town receives the services provided by the school department. I think it is time for us as a community, the adults in town, to help carry the burden of our Town’s financial pressures.

Sincerely,

Nathan Silva