SAUGUS-Town Meeting voted two to one Monday to put off funding the teachers contract to the next unspecified special Town Meeting.The 26-13 vote came after more than one-and-a-half hours of debate on whether $330,000 in potential savings should be transferred from Group Health to fund the teachers contract.Much of the debate included Town Meeting members with ties to the school system at odds with other town employees.Firefighter Jeff Moses, police officer Paul Van Steensburg and Department of Public Works employee Michael Dockery, who are also Town Meeting members, each said they felt it would be irresponsible to support the contract when every town department was feeling a financial pinch.But Superintendent Keith Manville said asking the School Department to fund the contract after all but telling him it would not have to would not only put the district in a financial pinch, it would result in a deficit.”I do not have a plan,” Manville said. “I’ve maintained since day one I do not have this in my budget.”School Committee member Frederick Doucette agreed if the contract was funded, it was not going to make the School Department whole.”We still won’t have gym, music or art, but what else won’t we have?”Town Meeting member Maureen Dever said she could not vote to fund the contract for 224 people at the expense of leaving the rest of town unprotected. The Essex Street Fire Station is slated to close in March, as is the library, and overtime will be cut for both the Fire and Police departments.Town Meeting member Barbara Malone also voted against funding the contract, which came as no surprise to her husband, School Committee Chairman Joseph Malone.Malone joked that he tried to persuade his wife to change her vote, but she stood her ground.”I went to the Finance Committee meetings,” said Barbara Malone. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wait and see the big picture.”The big picture is what the Finance Committee and Town Meeting members are hoping to see after the six-month review of the town’s finances takes place at the end of January.Town Moderator Robert Long said Tuesday he is hoping Selectmen would set a special Town Meeting for the end of January to address the funding situation.Until then, the town will be unable to set a tax rate.Saugus Educators Association president Russ Brandwein said the vote was not unexpected, but was disappointing. He said he expected the union to explore legal options to force the town to fund the contract and he plans to hold a general assembly meeting soon to decide what, if any, action to take.He also said he thought the direction the meeting took, playing teachers against other town employees, was sad.”They’ve been doing that for years,” he said. “It’s never going to change unless they adequately fund their municipal budget.”