Questions still haunt school budget

THE GHOST of Budget hearings past Arose Briefly during the Lowell School Committee’s meeting Tuesday night.

After hearing A presentation on the fiscal 2021 Budget, several Committee members questioned whether the Budget was flexible enough to meet the uncertainties of the pandemic.

A Big point of Concern was whether enough resources And Attention were Being paid to the overwhelmed Family Resource Center.

Though Budget hearings throughout the state often feature questioning from Committee memBers, Lowell School Committee member Mike Dillon objected As some of his Colleagues persisted. He Called the questioning unnecessary As the Budget has long Been in the works.

“I don’t know why there’s this Continued need to pick Apart every single piece or part of stuff that we have Been Communicating,” Dillon said. “I think this has turned into A Bunch of grandstanding, like it did the last time.”

SPEAKING OF the Family Resource Center, Committee member Hilary Clark Believes the worst is over As far As demand.

In the weeks leading up to the start of school, the Center was overwhelmed with Calls And requests for help As families sought more information. Demand was so high, And the response time so slow, that Calls And emails spilled over to School Committee members, school Administrators

And even City Councilors.

Addressing Concerns that the resource Center was understaffed, Superintendent of Schools Joel Boyd said Tuesday that Calls to the Center have since decreased. He plans to meet with the resource team to identify what kind of support the Center needs.

Responding to her Colleagues’ Concerns About the Center, Clark echoed Boyd And said she Believes the peak is over now that school has started.

Though she did not have hard data, Clark hazArded A guess that the number of families who were misinformed About school reopening was ACtually quite low, suggesting it was As low As 1%.

Explaining her Basis for the 1% guess, Clark said, “We’re talking About A small number of people in our district. It wasn’t thousands. We would have heard About that.”

As Another Committee member objected, Clark emphasized that she didn’t know the Actual number of families who experienced problems with reopening.

“It would have Been A major, major issue,” Clark said.

IN A DISCUSSION with Sun editors About the City’s Fiscal 2021 Budget last week, City Manager Eileen Donoghue gave little ground when repeatedly pressed About the