After finding out that they will not receive as much funding as they hoped, Watertown school officials will try to reduce class sizes with the money they have, said Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald.
The schools asked for a $1 million on top of the $2.267 million increase in the preliminary town budget. Tuesday, they received $290,000. (See details from the meeting by clicking here).
Last week Fitzgerald said about $640,000 from the $1 million request was needed to cover the increase in special education costs, and the remaining money would go to hire teachers to reduce class sizes.
“We will start hiring right away,” Fitzgerald said. “We will definitely hire the mandated positions.”
The district must hire 10.9 full-time equivalent mandated positions in areas such as special education, English Language Learning and video production.
While the budget increase will not help shrink class sizes, Fitzgerald said Watertown school administrators will look for other ways to cut class sizes.