Published April 26, 2019
MELROSE — As it faced some criticism about the document’s lack of detail, the School Department was successful in getting its spending plan passed Tuesday night for the 2019-20 educational year.
The approved total is $36,141,650, thanks mostly to the April 2 success of a $5.18 million override of Proposition 2 1/2.
Mayoral candidate Monica Medeiros, a former School Committeewoman and now an alderman-at-large, called for school leaders to hold off on Tuesday’s vote until a more detailed budget document was prepared. School Committeewoman Lizbeth DeSelm asked for the same thing.
In a statement released prior to what was expected to be the School Committee’s final FY ’20 budget vote on Tuesday, Medeiros said, “I am continuing to call for accountability and transparency now that the override has passed.
“Since the passage of the override, this is the first opportunity the city has to demonstrate to the taxpayers, in a clear and transparent way, the real impact the tax increase will have on specific line items within the school budget. The public deserves this accountability,” Medeiros said.
Despite beginning their budget process January 29, the first the School Committee members and the public saw of an actual line-by-line budget was with the release of the April 23 agenda documents.
“This budget document… is missing some key elements including a budget message and a year-over-year line item comparison,” Medeiros said.
Although (Superintendent of Schools Cyndy Taymore) presented her budget message on January 29, this message is not included in the document the committee is set to vote on Tuesday night. Medeiros says this “needs updating before it should be made part of the final document voted on by the School Committee since it refers repeatedly Budget A and Budget B and whether the override would pass.
“Most importantly, Medeiros continued, “the proposed final budget which the School Committee will consider for a final vote on Tuesday night shows only the proposed FY ’20 numbers with no context. This document should be revised to include line-by-line year-over-year comparisons (FY ’18 actual, FY ’19 budgeted, actual YTD spending along with the FY ’20 proposed figures).
“Taking the time to get this right is worth it. Scheduling another meeting to review the updated documents on April 30 makes sense,” Medeiros concluded before asking the public to join her in asking the School Committee to hold their vote.
School Committee member Lizbeth DeSelm has already called “for a complete budget document- one reflective of past year’s budgets with an eye towards future budgets. One that shows we are good stewards of the override funds.”
“This is a reasonable request for information which frankly should have been provided publicly before the public was asked to vote on the override,” said Medeiros.
Despite these calls for a vote delay, the school board okayed the fiscal year 2020 budget plan that now includes money raised by increasing property taxes through override of Proposition 2 1/2.
That extra money is needed for several educational areas.
School enrollment has increased by more than 230 students since 2013. Preliminary results from the city’s latest demographic study indicate this trend will continue through at least 2024, officials have said. The crush of kids means the district needs to hire more teachers, administrators and support staff. Space will be needed to accommodate these students as well.
The state, according to the information supplied by Mayor Gail Infurna, continues to cover only a small portion of the total funds Melrose is required to spend on education. “Currently, Melrose hovers just a few percentage points above the required minimum. If we do not meet this bare minimum, the state will not allow us to set our tax rate and the city and schools risk losing other state funding.”
On average, Melrose teachers were supposedly among the lowest paid in the state before the override passed. Staff positions have been eliminated across the district in order to hire additional teachers at the younger grades to meet enrollment needs. As a result, teachers are educating larger class sizes with fewer support staff. A new contract for Melrose teachers will be negotiated this year and the city needs to ensure adequate funding is available to provide teachers with competitive salaries.
The $1,905,000 needed to add teachers and support staff, according to the mayor’s administration, will be used to hire four middle school teachers to restore the middle school team model; two department heads in Social Studies and Science at the middle and high schools; four high school teachers; seven aides, and one high school guidance counselor.
Also hired: four elementary teachers, two elementary specialists, one elementary assistant principal, two elementary social workers and one English as a Second Language teacher.
The $675,000 requested to fund classrooms and infrastructure to meet enrollment demands will include reclaiming the currently-leased Beebe School property “to ensure availability of up to 12 additional classrooms of space, the configuration of which will be part of a long-term planning process by the School Committee.”
Also, the classroom supply budget would be restored to appropriate levels for needed materials, books and curriculum materials to meet state learning standards would be purchased, and the district’s technology infrastructure would be modernized.
