MANCHESTER — Mayor Ted Gatsas said the principal's union and the school district are close to reaching a concession deal.

“They've been at the table. They've been willing to talk,” said Gatsas. “It will be here soon. In the next three days, I expect there will be a special meeting and hopefully we'll have one for the teachers.”

The school board has been pushing district unions to make concessions on health care in hopes of preserving some of the 161 positions that have been eliminated next school year. The district's principals are in their own union, separate from teacher and support staff unions.

Union President Rick Norton, who also serves as principal of Green Acres Elementary, told the board during the public forum portion of the school board meeting Monday night he wanted to change the perception that his union has not been willing to talk to school officials. There have been more than a dozen meetings, he said, including one Monday afternoon.

“We want people to know we have and continued to come to the table for talks and for concessions despite talk and reports to the contrary,” Norton said.

The board also heard from more than a dozen teachers and principals about the proposed tax cap budget and how the expected layoffs will affect classes.

Norton told the board his school will have class sizes above the state-recommended 25 students in grades one through five. Second grade will have an average of 35 students in each class, third grade will have 31 students, fourth and fifth grade will have 34 students in each class, he said.

“In order to turn around the economy, we must educate our children. They will be the future job holders,” said Elinor Murphy, principal of Beech Street Elementary. “I believe we've lost sight of those important issues of these times.”

Hillside Middle School science teacher Kelly Carlson pointed to the outdated equipment and large class sizes that make her job more challenging.

“I have the same computer the district gave me the year I started teaching in 1994,” said Carlson. “This is the only computer in my classroom to serve my 150-plus students.”

Carlson also spoke of a broken projector and occasional use of 10 laptop computers which have missing keys and often run out of battery power for her 30 students. The faulty equipment makes things difficult now, she said, but it would be worse with the projected 42 students in each class she will see next year.

After the more than one hour hearing about the budget, the board spent another hour questioning the administration about staff layoff choices.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Tursi said junior teachers in each school were laid off evenly according to department. Then recommendations were taken from principals for layoffs, and teachers of elective classes were reduced.

Technology and foreign language classes were hard-hit. There will be only one German teacher in the district next year and all foreign-language teachers at the middle schools will be laid off.

While some board members were frustrated with the effect these layoffs would have on certain departments and programs, committee member Jason Cooper defended Brennan and the administration.

“Dr. Brennan, can you come back and instead of eliminating foreign language, can you just whack some social studies teachers or math teachers? Would that make people on the board happier instead?” asked Cooper. “The decisions the superintendent made were difficult decisions and I don't think any formula he came forward with would make anyone happy.”

There is little the school board or the superintendent can do at this point to save positions anyway, Cooper said.

“We can't say how much money we can spend. It's up to the Board of Aldermen,” he said.