Marblehead Public Schools need to cut about $1.7 million to reach a level-funded budget for fiscal year 2027, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Mike Pfifferling announced at a Jan. 5 meeting.
The town’s Finance Committee has directed all departments to prepare level-funded budgets for approval at Town Meeting in May.
After consulting with the five school principals and other administrators, Pfifferling and Superintendent John Robidouix were able to identify “efficiencies” that will bring that budget gap down to about $879,000.
Some of those efficiencies include:
- Not filling certain staff vacancies
- Targeted staffing adjustments that do not impact educational programming (i.e., unneeded positions offering intervention and support to English learners and a part-time art teacher)
- Shifting portions of funding for some roles to grants/revolving funds
School Committee member Jenn Schaeffner asked repeatedly whether there would be further staffing cuts to reflect a decrease in enrollment over the last decade.
“Yes, I think there’s still some slight efficiencies … without cutting too deeply into classroom teachers and instructional pieces,” Robidoux said.
School Committee member Melissa Clucas explained via email after the meeting: “The admin team is continuing to work with principals on additional efficiencies, including potential shifts of staff between schools/grades. Any further reductions beyond the ~$880K will likely begin to impact things like class sizes and instructional resources.”
Robidoux added that the Student Services (special education) team has indicated that, given current student needs, staffing reductions are not possible without negatively affecting services.
“The message was that needs have intensified (even as overall enrollment has declined), so special ed staffing is essentially treated as off the table for cuts at this point,” Clucas clarified. “The team is working on data that can explain this to the public without compromising student privacy.”
Next steps
- The School Committee meets next on Jan. 15 and is expected to approve a placeholder override request (with no amount attached) for the warrant (agenda) at Town Meeting. The School Committee regularly approves a placeholder, and the move does not mean that the committee will ultimately ask for an override.
- Robidoux and his team will finish the proposed budget by Jan. 26.
- The School Committee budget subcommittee will meet with the FinCom liaisons and the administration team around Jan. 29.
- The proposed budget will be presented to the full School Committee on Feb. 5.
