MARBLEHEAD, MA — The stark implications for Marblehead Public Schools of both a “level-funded” and the potential necessity of a “reduced-services” budget were outlined during Thursday night’s School Committee meeting ahead of the “State of the Town” presentation that will be delivered this coming week.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance Michelle Cresta told the School Committee that the administration was in the process of developing three budgets, per request of the Select Board and School Committee — a “level-funded budget,” a “needs-based budget” that includes level funding for most departments and some additional student support services, computer hardware and permanent substitute funding, and a “reduced-services” budget that would virtually match the funding the district received last year, and which Cresta said would create a $2.2 million shortfall that would need to be made up through eliminating “a significant number of staff positions.”
According to Cresta, the “level-services budget” would mostly maintain services following last year’s reduction of 33 equivalent staff positions and services and would mean a $47 million budget for the next school year because of increased costs and contractually obligated wage increases.
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But if the “reduced-services budget” is required that would maintain that same funding of $44.837 million that was allocated during the current year, that would create the need to cut the $2.2 million.
She noted that last year’s elimination of 33 positions added up to $1.5 million.
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“It’s going to be more than 33 staffing positions we are considering,” Cresta noted of next year’s potential cuts.
“Cuts will be significant to arrive at another $2.2 million in cuts,” she said in her presentation. “They are going to be significant. They will impact classrooms. And they will include a significant number of staff positions.”
She noted that 84 percent of the school budget is spent on employee compensation.
“Last year we eliminated 33 positions,” School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said. “Those are gone. That’s not part of this. So it’s what we cut last year and then from there, we are talking about another $2.2 (million).
Fox requested that all those interested in the schools watch the State of the Town on Wednesday at 6 p.m. to get an update on the projections that she said previously had the schools needing to be level-funded for this upcoming year, and reduced-funded for the following year.
“That’s going to be where we get our marching orders, if you will, on what to expect fiscally,” she said.
The School Committee did vote on several “placeholder” articles that may appear on the annual town meeting warrant — including one that would allow for a potential tax override request.
Tax override requests involving the schools (in 2022) and the general operating fund (schools, plus town services in 2023) both failed a townwide vote by a considerable margin each time.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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