MELROSE — As costs continue to climb, school administrators presented their first draft of a fiscal year 2025 spending plan this week.
There is still a long way to go until a final budget for the next academic year is approved, but interim Superintendent of Schools John Macero and Director of Finance and Administrative Affairs Ken Kelley presented an early look at what the city’s schools are facing at a meeting Tuesday night.
A School Committee vote on the next year’s budget is tentatively set for April 23.
School leaders want to spend just under $51 million, nearly 10 percent more than what was approved for the current school year.
Many of the financial obstacles the schools face today will not be going away anytime soon, Macero told the School Committee.
In a message accompanying the draft budget, Macero wrote that during the current fiscal year, “Out of district tuition was allowed to increase by as much as 14%. Transportation costs continue to be on the rise, contractual obligations and lastly, the district is experiencing higher than usual leave requests which currently are having an unbudgeted fixed cost attached to them.
“When reviewing fixed costs such as out-of-district tuition, transportation, contractual obligations, and personnel leaves, it is hard to recoup these expenses, and sustain the budget when the district can only increase by 2.5 percent, compared to the average percentage vendor increased costs of 10 percent. It is also difficult when enrollment numbers continue to rise, which in return creates bubble years and the need for additional staffing. Therefore, in order to sustain the excellence that Melrose provides its students the district had no alternative but to increase the request for additional funding. Otherwise we would jeopardize cutting programs and reducing staff.
“Realizing the Fiscal 24 Level Services would create such a deficit, the Melrose leaders rose to the challenge and instead of reducing programs and positions worked collaboratively to find solutions to fund the projected $2,760,000.00 deficit with anticipated one time monies from free cash.
“Special thank you’s all around to the Melrose School Committee, City Council, Mayor Paul Brodeur, Chief Financial Officer, Patrick Dello Russo, Director of School Finance, Kenneth Kelley, and all those who worked tirelessly in their unwavering commitment to educate all of our students of Melrose Public Schools for Fiscal 24.
“As Melrose proceeds to the FY25 Budget, it is evident Melrose still has multiple financial issues. Melrose can no longer hope that one time free cash allotments will ensure there is no deficit. The reality is that one time allotments do help, however those one time allotments do not resolve the deficit as the fixed costs tend to be higher than the allotted 2.5 percent annual increase. In Fiscal 24, Melrose contributed $38,511,659.00 plus an anticipated amount of up to $2,760,000.00 (free cash request) totaling $41,271,659.00. The School department through various offset accounts has contributed $5,720,000.00 in revenue to balance the Fiscal Budget at $46,980,000.00. The good news is with the anticipated allotment we will balance the budget for Fiscal 24.
Fiscal 2025
“The challenge now moves us to Fiscal 25. Costs are not going down but will continue to increase. The District continues to use offset accounts and raise revenue to help supplement the budget. Fiscal 25 offset revenues project to be $5,670,000.00. You may notice the offset revenues are reduced by $50,000.00 and that is due to transferring salaries from grant monies to the permanent budget. In order to fully balance the projected budget for Fiscal Year 25, the school department will ask the City to contribute $45,321,011.79, an additional $4,049,352.79 to balance the budget for fiscal 25. This is just under a 10 percent increase. Therefore the total amount including offset accounts for Fiscal 2025 is $50,991,011.79.
“A 10 percent increase may seem high however, Melrose is at a critical point moving forward. Enrollment numbers are up and bubble years continue to grow at various grade levels and those concerns need to be addressed. If you review the latest enrollment numbers you will witness that in most grades the new normal is close to or over 300 students. Next year, elementary enrollment will increase to 1,823, middle school to an all time high of 918, and high School to 986. Therefore, our projected enrollment city wide will be 3,727 with an increase of 55 students.
“The middle school will have two grades well over 300 students and one grade just under 300. Due to these larger classes the middle school will be the district’s top priority. Currently the middle school is woefully understaffed and underfunded. Class sizes continue to rise in both core and cross team assignments. Core classes are your traditional English, Math, Social Studies and Science and our Cross Team classes consist of Art, Music, World Language, Technology, Drama, Wellness/PE, Band, Orchestra, Chorus, Digital Literacy and many more. The goal is for our Core classes to have 14 sections across each grade level and then have 14 Cross teams sections to match, which will ensure all class sizes will average 21-22 students per class, the standard across all other grades in the district.
“In order to obtain the goal in our previous paragraph, the middle school will need to add fifteen (15) positions. These positions will expand all grade level teams and sections. It will also match our fourteen (14) core classes with fourteen (14) cross team classes by grade. Additionally we will add much needed support for Special Education Programs which in return should keep our students in district as there will be programs to support their needs as opposed to out of district.
“At the Elementary level, the district needs to commit all resources at all elementary schools. Fiscal 25 budget will place English Language Learner (ELL) teachers at all elementary schools by increasing services at Franklin, Horace Mann and Winthrop for all incoming Kindergarten classes. Hoover Elementary will create a Language Based program. This key initiative for the district will allow us to provide programs that are currently not available. By establishing a district wide Language Based elementary program, we will have a program for those students who qualify to remain in our schools.
“Hoover and Horace Mann Elementary are in need of additional administration support. All other elementary schools with the exception of Franklin have Assistant Principal support. In order to provide full equity across the board we will be requesting an additional (.5) Assistant Principal for each school.
“Franklin Early Childhood Center will be creating an additional Developmental Learning Classroom for Kindergarten. This classroom will enable students for whom transitions are difficult an opportunity to stay at Franklin with support in an environment that is comforting to them.
“Melrose High School is also seeking additional services for students. As stated regarding bubble years in middle school, class sizes are on the rise and we need to prepare our high school to meet those challenges. Melrose High School will add additional Math support and increased Special Education, World Language, and Music classes.”
Macero continued, “As you can see, our FY25 budget proposal includes necessary investments due to the ongoing growth in our community and our existing and incoming students’ known and projected needs. This process includes responding to growing enrollment as our known elementary and middle ‘bubble classes’ transition through the grades and into high school.”
The interim superintendent concluded, “In closing, Melrose will continue to work collaboratively and transparently, internally and externally, our focus for FY25 is to continue to build a fiscally responsible, needs-based, student-centered budget that supports accelerating learning for all students. In MPS, we remain vigilant about educating the whole child through the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and a personalized learning approach that provides care, access, and performance for every learner, every day.”
