Staffing cuts and religious holidays will be discussed at the Barrington School Committee meeting on Thursday night, May 22 at 8:30 p.m. 

Educators throughout the district learned recently that a tight operating budget is expected to impact staffing levels, including cuts to teaching positions.

That news was confirmed in the Barrington School Committee May 22 meeting agenda, which lists numerous items referring to staff layoffs. 

The committee is expected to discuss the layoffs in the executive session and again in the public portion of the meeting. The agenda lists “NEAB Staff layoffs-three positions,” and “BEST Staff layoffs-two positions.”

Multiple teachers in the district say that the cuts run deeper than that. They said Barrington is expected to eliminate 14 FTEs (full time equivalents). The cuts include administrative positions (central office), teaching positions, and support staff positions. 

School district officials would not comment on the cuts.

A budget presentation that was shared with the Barrington School Committee in mid-March called for the reduction of many expenses, including personnel, to meet revenue constraints. The areas listed for reductions were “BHS and BMS Paraprofessionals,” “One less section of Pre-K (teachers and 2 paraprofessionals),” “Administration reductions, including Technology,” and “Reallocation/reduction of personnel to accommodate enrollment demands at all buildings.”

The same budget document highlighted a significant decrease in expected state aid for Barrington Schools. The district received more than $11 million in state aid for the current year, but that figure is expected to drop by nearly $500,000 for the upcoming budget. 

The state aid decrease for Barrington follows a significant increase in state aid in 2023 — the district received a 23 percent increase, going from $7.9 million in state aid in 2022 to nearly $10 million in 2023. That figure increased again in 2024 and now stands at $11.5 million.

According to previous Barrington Times reporting, Barrington School officials used the 2023 increase in state aid to cover $1.44 million in salary increases for existing staff and to add nine new positions or FTEs. 

Religious holidays

At Thursday night’s meeting, the Barrington School Committee is also expected to vote on eliminating religious holidays from the school calendar. 

Committee members discussed the issue at their meeting on Thursday, April 24, but stopped short of voting on any changes. Instead, they chose to invite the public to the May 22 meeting. 

Currently the district observes a handful of religious holidays, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Good Friday, and Eid Al-Fitr. 

During the April 24 meeting, committee member Frazier Bell said it made sense to remove the religious holidays from the school calendar and just allow people to take those days off if they want to observe the holiday. He also said teachers in the district should not schedule tests or major projects for the religious holidays. 

Committee member Karen Rasnick was in favor of keeping the religious holidays on the school calendar. She said part of the reason why her family first moved to Barrington was because the school district observed the Jewish religious holidays. 

Committee member Tim McNamara said he spoke with some of Barrington principals who voiced concerns about staffing levels. However, McNamara added that he was leaning toward removing the holidays from the calendar — he also said that the district needs to be tolerant of all religions. McNamara said the district is currently picking and choosing which religious holidays to observe.

Committee member Liz Singh said Barrington schools do not currently observe Diwali, which is an important holiday for the Indian population. Singh said she has spoken with other members of the Indian community and they are upset that their holidays are not being recognized by the school district while other faiths’ holidays are. 

Committee member TJ Peck questioned whether the district should consider eliminating one of the three school vacation weeks. He also said that he expects Barrington will continue growing more and more diverse, which could lead to future challenges with scheduling religious holidays. 

Executive session

The school committee will meet in executive session at 6 p.m. The committee will discuss a variety of items in executive session: “security with Ed Davis Group,” “Job Performance NEAB and BEST layoffs,” “Job Performance LOA Request,” “NEAB Contract Negotiations,” and “Job Performance - Superintendent Semi-Annual Evaluation.”

The public portion of the meeting starts at 8:30 p.m.