Prop 2 1/2 Hearing

The Cambridge School Committee budget committee yesterday held the first of a series of scheduled hearings to determine possible cuts in the 1981-82 school budget forced by Proposition 2 1/2.

Glenn S. Koocher '72, School Committee budget committee chairman, presided over the meeting, in which Cambridge residents were invited to voice their opinions on the distribution of the proposed cuts.

The school budget must be cut by $6.6 million to fulfill the mandate of Proposition 2 1/2, a property tax-cutting referendum passed last November. Cambridge is one of the few communities which voted against the referendum.

Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55, speaking at the hearing, said he questioned "if the school committee could open the high school in September given the cuts necessary in the staff under Proposition 2 1/2."

The proposed cuts for the 2 1/2 budget include the laying off of 269 teachers and 80 administrators as well as the closing of the Haggerty and Lincoln elementary schools.

Residents in the Haggerty school district protested the proposed closing of their school. Leonard Russell, city councilman, said that closing the school would "ruin the community," adding that the residents of Haggerty would fight "tooth and nail" to keep the school open.