I would like to share some thoughts regarding the near-daily drama unfolding in municipal Marblehead. I call these thoughts “Marblehead Municipal Musings.” Musings reflect a period of thinking about something carefully and for a long time. With so much happening, one needs to dig deeper, think more intensely and faster. Thank goodness for live meeting feeds, newspapers, letters to the editor and MHTV recordings that you can watch again and again!
School Committee budget saga ends, no override requested
The drama surrounding the School Committee’s budget is over. On March 21, the SC presented its summary of an eye-straining 233-page budget covering what was needed for two options in FY25. These included a “reduced services” budget of $45.6M, a 1.7% or $756,000 increase over FY24; and a “level services” budget of $47.4M, a 5.8% or $2,587,000 increase. The “level services” budget would require an override.
Meanwhile, the teachers and students were clamoring for a “fully funded” budget. The SC threatened to withhold a budget number until the floor of Town Meeting. Ultimately, they admitted that they didn’t even know what a “fully funded” budget would look like. That took that option off the table.
The SC then wisely dug deeper and bled one-time, budget-boosting blood from every stone on their side of Goldthwait beach. They found $1.2 million to offset reduced-service budget cuts by drawing down some reserve and revolving fund accounts and tapping a “predicted” year-end FY24 surplus. (Can you believe a surplus given the employment shenanigans in the district?) In addition, the non-school side of the town gifted the schools $250,000 just for FY25.
What I call the “effective” budget increase is comprised of monies that the schools can spend on new items above the FY24 budget. It includes $756,000 representing the school’s share of increased tax revenues and the $250,000 one-time gift from the town. It also includes $1.2 million in reserve and revolving fund drawdowns and the predicted FY24 surplus. This totals $2,206,000, an increase of 4.9%.
Note that the schools also inherited $916,000 to pay for school-related utilities and Medicare expenses. Last year, this budget and the expenses were on the town side of the ledger. This can’t be considered part of the “effective” budget increase since the schools have to pay for the inherited expenses in FY25.
And no override is being requested. A good result? It depends on who you ask. Probably not as viewed by the teachers, students and parents since the “effective” increase is $381,000 below the “level services” budget.
At least the budget drama is over for this year. But from my perspective, we are just kicking the override can down one of our potholed or ripped-up streets.
School Committee’s vision definition is lacking
The SC states its “vision” is for Marblehead to be a “model school district.” But there is no qualitative or quantitative definition of what that means. There is no benchmark data comparing Marblehead to comparable towns in the areas of student academic performance, cost per student, student to teacher and staff to teacher ratios, teacher salaries, teacher satisfaction, student satisfaction, etc.
Speakers from the March 21 audience, not the SC, verbally presented some data. Student performance is at the high end of the scale, but so is cost per student. Teacher salaries are at the low end. This suggests several possible issues – general overstaffing, too many administrators, excessively expensive state-mandated programs, etc. But the SC showed zero interest in following up and addressing any of this.
With this data, cost reduction opportunities while maintaining education quality may be uncovered. Without this data, a “fully funded budget” is impossible to define. Perhaps the FinCom should press the SC to go get the data, establish some measurable goals and then determine how much their vision will cost. The town will then understand not only WHAT the schools want, but WHY.
Board of Assessors, dysfunction must be contagious
After reading John Kelley’s, Board of Assessors chair, letter to the editor in the March 13 Marblehead Current, I concluded the dysfunction exhibited by the School Committee must be contagious. John threw Karen Bertolino, the town assessor, under the proverbial MBTA bus! Now we know she was placed on administrative leave pending an outside audit of the entire assessment process. Where was the oversight by the BoA?
The board should stop reviewing the 340 abatement requests. Why? Many residents maybe didn’t file a request because of lack of time, money, procedural knowledge or bad past experiences. Second, will the approved abatement amounts be significant? Assuming an average assessed value reduction of $100,000 for the 340 requests and a $8.96 tax rate, the Town would lose $305,000.. The SC would love to get its mitts on that or even half. Lastly, people who saw their assessments go down haven’t been complaining. A new flock of boo birds will squawk if the town attempts to increase their assessments to recoup the abatement losses.
There are two ways to remedy things. Option 1: A complete property reassessment to correct the errors made. This might take considerable time to perform and check the results. Option 2: Perhaps easier and quicker — use FY24 assessments, increase them by 2.5%, and keep the $10 FY24 tax rate. Everyone’s property tax would increase by 2.5%. Assessors would have the rest of the calendar year to get things right. In effect, kick another can down our streets.
I do agree with John that it doesn’t matter whether the board is elected or appointed. Dysfunction can occur regardless. Appointees can be removed from service more easily. The termination of Christopher Gallo should not be our model.
Whenever assessments are significantly revised, I encourage the Board of Assessors to stop hiding and hold an educational town forum. It should illustrate the number of properties, value of properties and median property value in tax change brackets: +/-1%s, +1% to +5%, -1% to -5%, etc. Some case studies of anonymized properties would be helpful.
Town Meeting is less than a month away. Will the daily drama in municipal Marblehead abate, or will it swell like our rising ocean? Stay tuned for more musings soon.
James (Seamus) Hourihan was born in Marblehead and is a MHS graduate. For 35 years, he worked in finance, marketing and executive management roles at high-tech companies. He has lived here full-time since 2009.
