School Committee Member Discusses FY16 Budget

The New Bedford School Committee recently approved a budget of $120.4 million for the upcoming school year with a six to one vote.

School Committee Member Marlene Pollock told WBSM's Brian Thomas that was down from an original proposal of roughly $124 million and that some cuts had to be made as a result of that budget reduction.

Pollock says they had to reduce the number of English Language Learners teachers from 35 down to 12, a move which Pollock says will cause problems for many New Bedford families.

"We have had a huge increase in students coming with very limited or no English language ability," says Pollock "so if we don't have the staff to teach them they're sitting in class and they're not learning anything."

Pollock says any further cuts in funding could have long term detrimental effects.

"If you look at the funding over the years New Bedford was underfunded,and there's a correlation between underfunding and performance." says Pollock " So the city's that have not spent a little over net school spending are the lowest performing schools in the state."

Mayor Jon Mitchell was the lone dissenting vote.

The mayor has proposed a budget of $118.8 million which he will present to the City Council on Wednesday.