SAUGUS — “We never get what we ask for.”
That’s what School Committee Chairman Vincent Serino said when asked what would happen should the district not receive its $31.6 million fiscal year 2024 budget request.
Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth DePatto has signaled this will be the case, telling The Item he’s “not sure funding is available” for the district’s full $1.3 million requested increase.
“The town won’t have the funding to give them all that money,” he said.
Serino, for his part, was confident the district would be able to survive a shortfall.
“We have guard rails in there to protect us,” he said. “We’re in good shape.”
The rhetoric from DePatto echoes that of Town Manager Scott Crabtree, who recommended giving the district $30.7 million for the coming fiscal year in the budget he submitted to the Board of Selectmen. Crabtree has said giving more money to the schools could create a structural deficit. Without delving into specifics, he said superintendents of schools have, in the past, hired positions with grant money and then come to the town asking for the positions to be included in the operating budget.
He also said the district has unexpended grant funds, and pointed to the $3 million set aside in a student support reserve fund (SSRF) specifically for the schools as a way to potentially close the gap. Crabtree said he would continue meeting with School Committee members in an effort to “meet some of their needs” for the budget.
But, Crabtree and the Finance Committee have historically not met requests made by superintendents of schools and the School Committee, consistently providing less funding than district officials have said they need.
Indeed, a review of the budgets submitted to the town by the School Committee in FY22 and 23, and the final figures the district received show a disparity in hundreds of thousands of dollars for both fiscal years. In FY23, the district had to lay off staff as a result.
During that fiscal year, the School Committee proposed a $31.33 million budget, only to receive $30.2 million. And in FY24, despite rhetoric from committee members including Serino that the budget represented only the bare minimum the district needs to begin the school year, the town appears once again unlikely to fund the full budget request.
The budget before the Finance Committee is itself a significant reduction from that first proposed by Superintendent Erin McMahon, who has remained on paid administrative leave throughout the entirety of the budget process. The $1.3 million increase is accounted for almost exclusively in fixed cost increases. In fact, the amount of funding recommended by Crabtree would fail to cover the district’s contractual obligations.
The document also sets aside more than $500,000 in reserve for contract negotiations, with the district currently negotiating with unions representing teachers, paraprofessionals, and clerks. School Committee members had promised union leadership raises would become available once more money did. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Saugus teachers earn about $7,000 less than the median of other North Shore communities, which sits at $85,014.
Crabtree’s recommendation is just a $500,000 increase from the previous year, and his recommendations across the past four fiscal years, including FY24, have ranged between $300,000 and $500,000. A review of the budget book Crabtree submitted shows no department faced cuts to their proposals as high as the school department. In fact, he recommended several departments receive more than they requested.
Saugus spends less on its schools than other districts with a similar student population and demographic breakdown. Gloucester, with a foundation enrollment of 3,035 compared to 2,830 in Saugus, spent $58 million on its schools in FY23 compared to $46 million in Saugus, according to DESE.
All of this points to a district that ranks among the lowest in the state being unable to pull itself upwards due, at least in part, to a lack of funding.
At the Finance Committee meeting Wednesday Dennis Gould, the only member of the School Committee to back McMahon’s $32.8 million proposal, vocally expressed frustration with the budget throughout. He noted that Chapter 70 money from the state would become available when the state’s budget is finalized later this summer. The budget proposal submitted by Gov. Maura Healey includes nearly $12 million in Chapter 70 aid for Saugus. Healey’s administration has also made a commitment to continue funneling state funds to schools through the Student Opportunity Act for at least the next three years.
But, a $3.1 million increase to FY23 Chapter 70 monies was placed in a SSRF by Crabtree, which is overseen by the Finance Committee and Town Meeting. Crabtree has indicated some of the FY24 monies would also be added to the fund.
He is able to do so because Massachusetts General Laws dictate that all “revenue received or collected from any source by a city, town or district department or official belongs to the general fund.” Only by an act of the legislative body, in this case Town Meeting, can the funds be allocated for a specific purpose. As a result, the school district is reliant on the town for access to that state aid, which would more than cover the initial request put forth by McMahon.
DePatto countered that putting state aid into the budget could create a structural deficit should the money not come through in the way the district had anticipated.
“The craziest thing in the world to do is take money out of stabilization and use it for a contract hike,” he said. “It is always the concern of the Finance Committee when reoccurring expenses or salaries are coming from one source of funding.”
The budget presented by district officials Wednesday, including Acting Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem and Executive Director of Finance and Administration Pola Andrews, does not include indirect costs like health insurance that the town incurs on behalf of the schools. Those Schedule 19 costs, DePatto said, are estimated at $28 million for the coming fiscal year, bringing the total cost of the district’s operating costs up to $58 million — essentially half of the $120 million total budget proposed by Crabtree.
“Don’t say that the town is shortchanging you,” DePatto said. “Who’s to say that Chapter 70 money shouldn’t go to subsidize some of the spending that the town’s doing?”
“Every time they hire another employee, it creates a deficit on the municipal side,” he added in an interview after the meeting.
School Committee members publicly addressed the process Thursday night, vowing to add to the budget as money becomes available from the state and the federal government.
“We feel we need more teachers. We need more support staff in the school. We need to get our teachers to a pay scale where they’re compensated with other districts,” Serino said. “Our goal is to get the district not just what it needs, but what it deserves. Every student, whether it’s gen ed, whatever the student’s needs, we’re responsible for that.”
But Gould said it is his belief that the committee should’ve pressed forward with approving McMahon’s budget, knowing that the Chapter 70 funds would be available later in the year.
“You never get all your income the day you start working,” he said.
“I believe that the budget the superintendent laid out covers all the bases we needed to do,” Gould added. “It shouldn’t be a town versus schools issue. It should be as the money comes available, we take it.”