NEW on March 24: The School Committee’s budget subcommittee will meet virtually Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. to try again to determine whether the $1.5 million additional cuts requested by the town represent an accurate number. The public can join HERE. Public comment is on the agenda.
Then on Friday, the School Committee will meet at 10 a.m. to vote on its final budget and a possible override request, according to the agenda. The meeting will take place at the Mary Alley Municipal Building (lower level) and can be joined virtually as well. Public comment will be allowed.
Chair Al Williams told the Current that the School Committee does not want to make any more cuts (it has already trimmed about $2.7 from the fiscal 2027 budget), but that it is working with the town.
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At its March 19 meeting, the School Committee had planned to discuss a potential override as well as options to absorb an additional $1.5 million in school budget cuts for the 2027 fiscal year.
Instead, the committee decided to postpone the discussion of specific plans until they are certain of the accuracy of the size of the budget cut the schools need to absorb.
“I don’t want to discuss too much without knowing what the number is, but I think people in the community want to know what we’re planning, because they’re all seemingly willing to support it,” committee member Henry Gwazda said.
Slides that Superintendent John Robidoux had planned to present showed “override needs” of $1.5 million in 2027 to make up for the budget cut. If the $1.5 million override were to pass, the slides show about $4 million in override needs in FY 2028, and about $4.3 million in FY 2029, though those numbers are premised on an override passing in the prior fiscal year.
Robidoux’s slides also outlined several options for absorbing the cuts, including:
- Prepaying out-of-district tuition to reduce that line in the proposed budget by $1.5 million.
- Returning up to $1.5 million from the school department’s 2026 fiscal year general fund to help cover the 2027 fiscal year
- Cutting an additional 20 to 30 full-time-equivalent employees beyond the 15 already proposed in the budget.
- Implementing school choice to supplement the schools’ revenue.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Mike Pfifferling said that these plans and calculations were all based on the need to cut $1.5 million, a figure the committee was not confident was accurate. The committee decided to hold off on discussing plans to absorb the cut and overrides until they are certain and comfortable with the number.
“I’m interested in supporting an override that is not a Band-Aid fix, that is a long-term structural fix,” committee member Melissa Clucas said. “So, whatever those numbers are, once we have those finalized, based on those cuts, I will throw all of my energy into that effort.”
Parents, teachers voice support for school funding
Town leaders had previously mandated the school to absorb $2.6 million in budget cuts. But earlier this month, the schools were asked to cut an additional $1.5 million.
“Fight to support our schools, and that does mean financially support our schools because every budget cut is felt hard,” said Eve Cronin, who is a parent to three children in Marblehead Public Schools. “We live in a community, and somehow it has to be conveyed to people that if you don’t want to live in a community and help your neighbor out, then you should live somewhere more rural.”
Father of two students and Village School teacher Jonathan Heller, co-president of the Marblehead Education Association, echoed the sentiment of shared responsibility and urged the town to choose a path that will support students.
“When we invest in our town services, we are not just getting through the moment; we are reflecting who we are as a community,” Heller said.
Former School Committee member Sarah Fox urged the Select Board to ensure their numbers “could be trusted” before going forward with the additional $1.5 million cut. Jobs are being cut, she said, and these numbers “don’t have any grounding in reality right now.”
Deliberations and calculations of budget cut amount
Robidoux said he did not think the town’s numbers were accurate and was not convinced due diligence had been done in validating the budget.
In a previous meeting, he called the town’s financial assumptions around employee health insurance into question, as the cost the town estimated for employee health insurance was based on a predicted percentage increase.
Pfifferling said that, in his understanding, the budget cut had nothing to do with benefits but instead because the town was willing to allocate 63% of the town’s overall $97 million budget to the schools, which amounts to about $61 million. However, the school’s level-funded budget, including the estimated cost of employee benefits, would require $62.5 million, according to Pfifferling. These estimates are where the proposed $1.5 million cut arose from.
“To me, this has nothing to do with benefits, other than somebody said it, and it’s one of the things we have to account for,” Pfifferling said.
Still, the School Committee is uncertain about the actual cost of employee benefits.
The employee benefit figures the town originally used to calculate the $1.5 million cut have since been updated as the town receives new information. Using these new figures, Pfifferling presented premium costs of employee health insurance in detail, outlining the cost of employee life insurance, retiree benefits, pensions and Medicaid. After discussions with Marblehead finance director Aleesha Benjamin, he determined that the town’s figure of $1.5 million was overinflated by an amount between $200,000 and $250,000.
The cost of employee health insurance could change daily with staff being hired, retiring or resigning, Pfifferling added.
“They should not have tied this to benefits, because the benefit number is not accurate,” Robidoux said.
The committee decided to convene a subcommittee meeting with the Select Board to go through the numbers and validate the data that led to the suggested $1.5 million budget cut recommendation. Members agreed that the town needs to work together through this structural deficit to come up with a solution.
Once they were sure of the data, Robidoux said they would discuss plans moving forward.
‘Phenomenal’ professional development day
Also discussed at the School Committee meeting, Marblehead Public Schools hosted a professional development day March 13. Assistant Superintendent Julia Ferreira said it was a “phenomenal” day.
Ferreira went through the schedule for the day, which included dozens of options for classes the teachers could take. Classes were run by the schools educators who were able to submit proposals for potential lessons. Classes focused on subjects such as AI, wellness, and teaching and learning.
“I wish I could have bottled up the energy,” Ferreira said.
Robidoux said that this was the best professional development day he has seen in his more than 20 years as an educational leader.
