Contract and other salary increases in Marblehead schools would add $1.54 million to the district’s fiscal year 2027 budget, according to Assistant Superintendent Mike Pfifferling. Meanwhile, the town has asked all departments to submit level-funded budgets. The MPS FY 26 budget is $49.1 million, which was 5% higher than the year before.
The school department also faces hikes in utility, transportation and other costs, pushing the total increase in salaries, services and supplies to $2.4 million, Pfifferling said.
Pfiffering and Superintendent John Robidoux are meeting with principals and other department heads to find out what can be cut.
“There are some areas in the district that can be trimmed,” Pfifferling said at a School Committee budget subcommittee meeting on Nov. 17.
“We have to find what we can trim without doing too much damage to the educational impact on students, and we’ll have to make those cuts to get down to level funded.”
School staffing audit
At the request of the Finance Committee, Pfifferling is leading an audit of every school, grade, classroom and program to provide a clearer picture of how the district allocates its funds.
Over the last decade, Marblehead’s enrollment has dropped from 3,201 in the 2015-16 school year to 2,513 this school year. That’s a drop of 688 students or 21.5%.
The number of teachers has also dipped. According to the Department of Secondary Education, Marblehead had 256.8 full-time teachers in the 2014-15 school year, leading to a 12.6-to-1 student-teacher ratio. In 2024-25, the number of teachers dipped to 225.1, and a 11.4-to-1 student-teacher ratio.
Interestingly, the birthrate was lower in 2014 (145) than in 2023 (175), according to the town’s annual reports.
At the Nov. 17 meeting, Pfifflerling shared preliminary results of an audit of MPS enrollment and staffing in all five schools. Here’s a look:
School Committee member Melissa Clucas asked Pfifferling if anything in the audit jumped out at him as being off.
“Yes, and those are conversations I need to have with the principals,” Pfifferling said. “I’m sure there are logical explanations … For me to say ‘you have too many teachers in your building’ from a numbers standpoint doesn’t do justification as to what your actual needs are.”
At the Nov 17 meeting, Pfifferling released an updated list of capital requests the district may want to ask of the town. The School Committee will vote on the list, which prioritizes a Glover playground refurbishment for $45,000 and new paint, padding and flooring in the high school field house, totaling $528,846.
What happens next?
Pfifferling will deliver a budget update to the full School Committee at its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m.
The School Committee’s budget subcommittee will submit its capital request to the town on Nov. 28. On Dec. 1, it will meet with Finance Committee liaisons. Over the next several weeks, the administration will meet with principals to identify possible inefficiencies and present a proposed budget to the School Committee on Feb. 5.
***This story was updated Tuesday at 3 p.m. with new dollar amounts from Assistant Superintendent Mike Pfiffering.
