By: NEIL ZOLOT
MELROSE – With Mayor Paul Brodeur dissenting, the School Committee approved a $47,620,379 budget for Fiscal 2024 at their meeting last week.
The spending plan is $5,770,970 (approximately 8.8%) larger than the Fiscal 2023 budget of $41,849,409.
“That is significantly lower than what the city feels is necessary,” Brodeur said.
The school budget is the largest portion of the city’s full Fiscal 2024 budget of $101,173,341, which is $5,917,261 (6.2%) larger than the Fiscal 2023 budget of $95,256,080.
The approved figure is lower than various recommendations made by Superintendent Julie Kukenburger and School Dept. Director of Finance and Operations Kenneth Kelley. They presented four options: a Level Service Budget of $48,473,248; a Level and Required Service budget of $49,203,848; a Level and Required Service budget with minimal additions of $49,543,848, including elementary level English interventionists for $103,000 and a Special Education Administrator for $92,000 and a Level and Required Service budget with all requested additions of $50,414,348, including eliminating elementary level student music user fees ($110,000) and adding boys volleyball for $17,000.
Kukenburger said middle school classes are large and the school is understaffed, which will create a ripple effect as those students age. “We’ve been lean for too long at the Middle School; there’s a tipping point and we’re there,” she said. “We have two years to be flexible and creative.” Moves could involve transferring some staff, like guidance counselors, to the Middle School, but she warned, “You don’t want that to be permanent.”
She feels even the Level Service budget would “allow us to prioritize services. It’s important to know what we’re working with before we get too far down the road.”
The four options all included Chapter 70 state aid offsets of $12,260,358 and other offsets (grants, receipts, etc.) of $6,660,880 leaving Net Operating budgets of $29,552,010; $30,282,610; $30,622,210 and $31,493,110. $47,620,379 minus $18,921,238 leaves $30,699,141 as the approved Net Operating budget.
Receipt offsets include Education Station after school programs ($950,000) and athletic revolving accounts and facilities rentals ($250,000 each).
In remarks at the meeting and a subsequent joint City Council /School Committee meeting Wednesday, May 10, Brodeur explained how the school and municipal and school budgets were put together using higher than expected state aid, local Free Cash and the Education Public Safety and Public Abuse Prevention Stabilization Fund derived from the marijuana industry. “The city has confidence this is a sustainable source,” he said of the latter. “It would be my expectation it will be incorporated into the school budget on a regular basis.”
He feels use of Free Cash and tax overrides will be necessary in the short run due to structural deficits in the budgeting process as a result of rising Special Education costs. One element of that is out-of-district tuition rates for private day and residential schools increasing 14% in Fiscal 2024, announced last November by the state’s Operational Services Division at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance. (The private day and residential schools in question are those that work with students with severe developmental disabilities and offer appropriate services, but public school districts are billed for the cost. The increase in Fiscal 2022 was 2.5%. The average increase over the last decade has been 1.8 percent.) “We will have to follow this practice for several years, but we are taking a proactive approach,” he said. “We can find a path forward, not as quickly as we’d like, to support our teachers and students and invest in our schools and maintain what we have to by law.”
City Chief Financial Officer Patrick Dello Rosso added deficits are not unique to school systems, but occurs in many departments. “We have to accept that as a community and provide services in those areas without hesitation,” he said. “One of the things any community is required to do is maintain financial security and provide level service. It would be irresponsible if you were able to address the finances and chose not to. You want to fund a School Department to the highest level to serve our students. Period.”
He also said, “Other funding sources will add to that (the School Dept. budget) under the purview of the School Committee. What they can support will be funded from these sources not related to what the city is providing. There are funding sources the schools use that are not part of that.”
“What I’ve heard is remarkably speculative,” School Committee member Ed O’Connell reacted. “It seems to be based on hopes and wishes.”
“This is not the way to run a railroad, but this is the way we run it,” School Committee member Jennifer McAndrew added.
She made the formal motion to pass the budget, followed by another asking the city to provide up to $869,495 to cover additional expenses. Brodeur again dissented. “We’ve already committed up to $500,000,” he said. “At a time when every dollar counts, there are some things I won’t support.”
Although she voted for the reduced budget, School Committee member Dorie Withey lamented, “We’ve been talking about maintaining level services, but it’s not enough. Our kids need more.”
In Public Comment at the outset of the meeting, teacher Sarah Martorano said, “I love you’re trying to build a fiscally responsible, needs based budget that will support learning, but I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that. We’re a bunch of hamsters on this wheel. Everything keeps going back to the status quo. When are we going to move forward for our students and city?”
She is particularly concerned corridors and staircases are being used as instructional spaces in the Middle School, often during passing times.
Another motion asked the city to appropriate funds as needed, without a number attached. McAndrew said it was because the amount of Free Cash available is as yet undetermined.
Brodeur abstained. “I’m for this, but we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem,” he said.