After multiple rounds of reductions, Marblehead Public Schools officials said they are within $806 of a level-funded fiscal year 2027 budget at the School Committee’s Budget Subcommittee meeting on Jan. 29.
The meeting included School Committee members Melissa Clucas and Jenn Schaeffner, Superintendent John Robidoux, Assistant Superintendent of Finance Mike Pfifferling, and Finance Committee liaisons Molly Teets and Pat Franklin.
Pfifferling walked the subcommittee through a detailed breakdown of the district’s full budget, including grant and revolving fund sources, saying the goal was to show “how much we actually spend and not just the town appropriation amount.”
For FY27, Pfifferling said a level-services budget would increase total spending by about $2.6 million. Roughly $1 million of that gap has already been addressed through state funding and expanded use of the kindergarten and pre-K revolving account, leaving about $1.7 million to close — a figure the district has been working to reduce in recent weeks.
At a Jan. 5 meeting, administrators outlined a first round of adjustments amounting to about $720,000 focused on “efficiencies,” including keeping vacant positions unfilled, shifting salaries to grants and revolving accounts, and trimming supply and contracted service lines. Pfifferling said those options have largely been exhausted.
“These are the cuts that are going to hurt,” Pfifferling said as he introduced the second round of proposed adjustments. “These are the reductions … that’s going to affect, in some ways, our educational core, in some ways our special education programming, in some ways facilities.”
Eliminating five teaching positions
Second-round proposals trim an additional $965,000 from the budget and include the elimination of five teaching positions districtwide (one teacher at the elementary level, one at Veterans Middle School and three at the high school) and a reduction of a general education instructional assistant at the elementary level.
The plan also includes leaving certain special education and administrative positions unfilled, reducing a maintenance position, lowering the amount prepaid for special education tuition, and adjusting utilities and transportation budgets.
“We’re hoping it’s zero teachers,” Pfifferling said, noting that retirements and resignations could offset layoffs. “But there are five positions that are identified.”
Robidoux said administrators intentionally prioritized minimizing impacts on classroom instruction, particularly in the early grades.
“The plan here is to make the least impact on classroom sizes,” he said. “We’re looking not to do that unless we have to.”
He explained that reductions at the secondary level often have less effect on class size than comparable cuts in elementary grades, a factor considered during the second-round review.
In response to the latest round of proposed cuts, the Marblehead Education Association released this statement: “Our schools and students are already feeling the strain of prior staffing and programmatic cuts in classrooms and student support services. Before reductions are discussed, the School Committee should present both a fully funded budget and a level-services budget so residents can decide whether to support the funding required to maintain services or accept reduced services for students.”
One second-round adjustment increased the budget line for out-of-district special education tuition and transportation by about $81,000, after Pfifferling said the original projection did not fully account for escalating transportation costs.
Robidoux added that if additional funding becomes available, restoring the five teaching positions identified in the second round would be the district’s top priority.
“If something doesn’t give, we’re looking at substantial work to make our budget work … disastrous to the core and facilities and transportation and technology,” Pfifferling said of fiscal year 2028. “Every department will suffer.”
Finance Committee Vice Chair Molly Teets said she believes a long-term approach should be taken as the town considers a potential override to account for future costs.
Despite the challenges, Robidoux said the district has positioned itself as well as possible under the constraints of a level-funded budget.
“I think we feel as good as we’re going to feel about it,” he said.
Officials emphasized that both rounds of adjustments are likely to fluctuate ahead of the Feb. 5 meeting, when the proposed FY27 budget — including narrative explanations and charts — is expected to be presented to the full School Committee.
