By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — The Finance Committee last night voted to recommend favorable Town Meeting action on the $34,847,085 School Department budget with its $3,558,357 (11.4 percent) increase but the vote wasn’t unanimous and was preceded by a lengthy and at times spirited discussion.

Earlier in the evening, the FinCom heard a detailed budget presentation from School Superintendent Dr. Stephen Zrike, School Department Business Manager Michael Pfifferling and School Committee Chairman Christopher Callanan. School Committee members Janine Cook, Thomas Markham, Kate Morgan and Evan Kenney were also in attendance.

Zrike broke down the 11.4 percent budget increase. The largest piece was $1,176,875 (3.8 percent) for “contractual salary obligations.” Another 2.1 percent was for SPED tuitions and $628,218 (2 percent) was to fund salaries related to the newly instituted full-day kindergarten. An additional $378,956 (1.2 percent) was slated for new positions. A combination of smaller amounts for items like curriculum, technology, transportation and utilities make up the remaining 2 percent of the requested budget increase.

Several FinCom members felt that the large increase was warranted in order to help the School Department catch up from years of limited budgets due to lack of available funds.

The only dissenting vote on the School budget was that of FinCom Chairman Gerard Leeman. He said that his “no” vote was based less on concerns over what was in the FY 2016 budget and more on what he saw as “equivocation” from the school side when it came to the Finance Committee’s insistence that due to the size of this year’s increase, they expect the School Department to come in with a maximum 4 percent budget increase for at least the next three years

“I didn’t see the will to do it,” Leeman said of the School Department limiting the size of its future budget requests. “Unless held accountable, they won’t come back with 4 percent.”

Other FinCom members argued that each year’s budget should be considered on its own merits and that a “no” vote on next year’s budget shouldn’t be predicated on what the School Department might do in the future.

But Leeman maintained that adherence to future 4 percent limits was “part of the sales pitch” to get approval of this year’s 11.4 percent increase.

FinCom member Lorri Wheeler sits on the School Budget Subcommittee and said that during budget meetings it was made very clear to the School Department that they would be held to a 4 percent cap on increases for the next few years.

But FinCom member Edward Dombroski predicted the School Department would come back next year and argue that they need additional money to maintain the improvements funded this year and “keep the momentum going.”

Doug Butler pointed out that for several years the FinCom has been hammering departments to “give us a real budget.”

“New initiatives cost money and you have to have them from time to time,” Butler said. He maintained that Leeman was punishing the School Department for not being dishonest about their future intentions.

But Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio said that Superintendent Stephen Zrike was anticipating living within the guidelines.

“I trust him,” Maio said.

Leeman indicated that it wasn’t Zrike that he was worried about.

But other FinCom members maintained that Zrike was “driving the train” at the School Department.

Ultimately, the FinCom voted to recommend favorable action on the School Department budget, with Leeman opposed and Wayne Tarr abstaining.

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The only other Town Meeting warrant article to draw a lot of discussion last night was Article 21, which seeks $200,000 in town funds to supplement the just over $1 million in Chapter 90 money for road maintenance that the town expects to get from the state.

FinCom member James Sullivan advocated upping that amount by $500,000 to $700,000. Noting the beating that the town’s roads took this past winter, other members agreed that it made sense to take some additional money from reserves for extra road work.

Tarr said he couldn’t recall a time when the town’s roads have been this bad following a winter season.

But Maio said that the Board of Selectmen was looking at the possibility of a bond issue to fund much more additional road work in the near future. He said he would rather take that approach than use reserves to add to next year’s road work budget.

FinCom member Philip McCarty said he wanted to settle some of the existing “unknowns” in the town budget before adding more to the budget for road work.

Sullivan’s motion to increase the amount to $700,000 failed. FinCom member Daniel Sherman then made a motion to increase the amount to $400,000. That motion also failed and ultimately the FinCom voted to recommend favorable Town Meeting action on the original $200,000 amount in Article 21.

The Finance Committee voted to recommend favorable action on all but three articles on the May 4 Annual Town Meeting. Articles 9 and 10 are collective bargaining agreements that haven’t yet been voted on by the Board of Selectmen and Article 14 is a non-FinCom Article related to a School Committee contract for special education transportation.

Earlier in the evening the FinCom heard presentations on the Library, Vocational School and Medicare budgets. They also reviewed Article 3 (Debt Service – $4,251,929), Article 12 (Police and firefighter indemnification – $25,000), Article 13 (Galvin Bonds – $950,123.46) and the lease of the parking lot in the rear of alano ($5,650).

The FinCom also heard Sherman’s Fiscal Year 2016 Forecast.