$1.65 Million Braintree School Budget Cut On The Table: Patch PM

BRAINTREE, MA — It's Tuesday, March 30. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Braintree school officials have begun grappling with how to make those cuts amid the coronavirus pandemic and are considering a $1.65 million budget cut.
• A police captain accused of bilking taxpayers out of more than $12,000 by skipping out early.
• Another plea to not let up on the fight against the coronavirus.
• Something doesn't compute about a company thinks workers will respond to its robot.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

Revenue losses stemming from the coronavirus pandemic will force town departments, including the school district to cut their budget, and Braintree school officials have begun grappling with how to make those cuts.

Currently, the school budget sits at $73.2 million. Maintaining current school programs for another year would cost $75.79 million due to a $2.57 million increase in contractual pay raises. But Mayor Charles Kokoros said a more conservative budget is needed because of revenue shortfalls brought on by the pandemic. Kokoros instructed town departments to present level service budgets that account for contractual pay raises and then cut the budget by 10 percent.

Superintendent Frank Hackett on Monday presented the School Committee's finance and operation subcommittee a rough draft of a nearly $1.7 million budget cut, leaving the district with about $71.6 million for fiscal year 2022.

"We are heavily dependent on local revenue, and we know that's the challenge we face this year in going into 2022," Hackett said.

Read the full story here

Other top stories

Retired Boston cop facing charges: A retired Boston police captain was arrested Tuesday as part of a federal investigation into an overtime fraud scheme at the department's warehouse.Richard Evans, 62, of Hanover, is accused as being part of a group of officers who skipped out hours early on overtime shifts for the Evidence Control Unit he oversaw. Officers can make 1.5 times their pay in overtime working the unit.

This ain't over yet: Not by a long shot. Gov. Charlie Baker urged people not to confuse progress with victory, asking virus-weary residents to keep guard against a "false sense of security." Baker was speaking Tuesday alongside CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who only one day before warned of "impending doom" due to rising coronavirus cases across the country. One of those places seeing an increase in cases is Massachusetts, but said Tuesday she wouldn't comment on the restrictions in individual states. She did say she was pleased to see so many in Massachusetts wearing a mask. Walensky also clarified Monday's comments to say the "impending doom" is preventable.

Good for workers? That might be a stretch: Boston Dynamics, the Waltham-based company known for its robot dog Spot, released a video of Stretch, its latest robot prototype. This robot is designed to automate repetitive box-moving in warehouses and distribution centers. Stretch can unload trucks and build pallets of boxes, according to the company. The company said Stretch makes "makes warehouse operations more efficient and safer for workers." We wonder what the workers feel about the new guy.

We hope he used Geico: A traveler from Florida brought home an unlikely souvenir — a lizard that hid in the car during the whole trip up to Massachusetts. Once the driver spotted the lizard, they brought it to the Animal Rescue League of Boston's Brewster location. The ARL said the lizard was a Brown Anole lizard and not native to Massachusetts. The little lizard's travels weren't quite over yet.

They're right there!: Ever see an endangered right whale? If you were motoring around off the Cape earlier this month you probably did. There were 89 sightings of the creature on March 21, the most spotted in a single day this season. Federal officials have urged boaters to slow down to avoid injuring the endangered fellas.