The City Board of Vantaa decided on Monday night on a number of cost-cutting measures. After long debate on different ways to help the city's finances recover, the board unanimously passed a package of proposals for the years 2006 - 2008, including controversial cutbacks in the school network.
Protests by residents against planned closures of schools and day care centres continued into Monday afternoon. Shortly before the meeting, the board received an appeal to preserve the Tikkurila school, which is nevertheless to be shut down as originally planned, along with other schools and day care centres on the chopping block.
It proved politically difficult to pass a plan for increasing class sizes for the first and second grades of school. The City Board asked the city's education department to look into ways of maintaining the present class sizes.
This means that original plans to cut the jobs of 50 teachers will be modified to just 30-40 school employees. However, plans to cut 100 teaching assistants are to go ahead.
The aim of the measures is to fix the city's tattered finances, and get Vantaa out of the red in 2008. To do this, the city will have to fill a gap of EUR 40 million.
