“We’re just in shock and disbelief,” one Newton school staff member said in the March 8 Boston Herald. “Cutting the librarians is so short-sighted, so devastating.” Lincoln-Eliot School Principal Vivian Swoboda told the Newton TAB that the cuts were “a real loss. . . . It’s so important for kids to learn research skills” to navigate the internet.
Other positions eliminated are 54 teacher aides and 29 teachers in the elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as 14 support staff. The Herald noted that Newton’s well-regarded school system had settled on a new contract with its union the previous week, giving teachers a 6% raise over the next two years.
Posted March 11, 2005.