WOBURN - Schools' Supt. Dr. Carl Batchelder recently agreed to extend a municipal hiring freeze to the city's education sector, but with the stipulation that the district will replace necessary teaching vacancies.

During a recent meeting, School Committee Chair Joseph Crowley revealed that the mayor had asked the school system to institute a hiring freeze until the city's financial gurus can determine whether a national economic downturn will trickle down to the local level.

"He's putting a hiring freeze on his end and he's asking the School Committee to do the same," said Crowley. "He's concerned, as we all are, that depending on what happens with the economy, there could be [trouble] on the horizon."

According to Batchelder, he has already met with administrators and ordered that a hiring freeze be extended across the district.

However, the superintendent warned that if an essential teaching vacancy occurred, administrators would have to fill that position in order to keep class sizes at contractually-required levels.

The superintendent has also asked building principals to try to limit expenditures from supply accounts, however, those line-items were already reduced significantly during budget deliberations last spring.

"We're not just going to have a carte blanche freeze," said Batchelder. "Bear in mind, current supply lines were all in the negative last year."

According to Assistant Superintendent Joseph Elia, the mayor has also asked the School Committee to delay any expenditures from its capital repair budget.

Late last September, in the wake of the collapse of Wall Street giants Lehman Brothers, American International Group, and Washington Mutual, the council just about halved school officials' original $729,500 capital wishlist.

The School Committee had sought funding for 21 capital items, but that list was whittled down to about 10 requests, including funding for two new boilers at the Hurld and the Linscott-Rumford.

School officials warned that without the boiler upgrades, the two schools would not be properly heated during the winter months.

According to Elia, although the boiler projects are still funded, administrators agreed to wait on spending $176,000 for security system upgrades, window replacements, and hall lighting improvements.

"The mayor asked us if we could put a hold on some of the capital replacements until he could reevaluate them at the beginning of the year," the assistant superintendent explained.

Absent the permanent pulling of the funding, the assistant superintendent didn't believe that the wait would cause any significant delay in instituting the repairs, as most of the work wouldn't have been undertaken until the spring months.

A list of some of the projects that are now on hold include:

* $9,000 for a "Lobby Guard" security system at the Joyce Middle School,

* $17,000 for hall and emergency lighting at the Altavesta Elementary School,

* $40,000 for window replacements in the newer wing at the Wyman Elementary School,

* $50,000 for window replacements at the Hurld,

* and $60,000 for a security system at the Kennedy Middle and an as-yet undetermined elementary school.