To the editor:
The recent Marblehead School Committee Meeting to vote on the FY27 budget raised concerns about how one member’s view what many would consider a significant sum of taxpayer money.
The main issue centers on a $750,000 “buffer” — an undedicated reserve meant to protect against unexpected healthcare costs. It’s important to note there is already an additional buffer because the health insurance budget was not reduced to reflect savings from the planned reduction of as many as 56 positions due to layoffs in both the town and schools.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Mike Pfifferling stated in his professional opinion, one that has been praised town wide by the School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee alike, he does not think carrying the buffer, or cushion as he referred to it, is necessary in the current financial climate and he would instead recommend the school self-insure that line item, meaning the town can reduce its budget for the school cushion and the schools would cover any needed overages in that line item within their own budget.
During the meeting, committee member Jenn Schaeffner stated she was not saying a buffer is not a good financial practice, but rather that she was supporting the recommendation of the school finance director in self-insuring that buffer within the school budget.
Current School Committee member and candidate for election, Melissa Clucas gave her reasoning for going against the recommendation of the school finance director and administration as two-part. First, the Select Board has already voted on its budget, assuming the schools cut $1.5 million. It is important to note the schools agreed to delay their budget vote at the town’s request, despite being ready months before the town delivered its budget a mere 4.5 weeks prior to town meeting. Clucas’ second reason she provided was that she preferred to follow the recommendation of Aleesha Benjamin, the town finance director, to that of the school finance director Pfifferling.
Clucas, who earlier this year was the lone dissenting vote against raising school user fees, a mechanism employed to generate revenue for the schools in order to protect student-facing services like sports and extracurricular activities, seems to be saying she does not support the schools finding any additional revenue yet supports additional cuts that are not recommended by the school finance director. In the current fiscal plan, the elimination of the fees would mean the elimination of the programs they fund.
Clucas made the statement of “nickel and diming” multiple times throughout the recent School
Committee meeting to vote on the FY27 school budget, in reference to the nearly $500,000, which she referred to as a “small amount,” as to why she was voting to, in her words, “go against the (school) administration team.”
I find Clucas’ continued reference to nearly $500,000 in taxpayer money as “nickel and diming” and a “small amount of money” to be egregious. No matter which side citizens find themselves on in the override debate, $500,000 in what has been referred to as the most difficult budget crisis anyone in Marblehead has experienced, I am confident in saying is significant. That amount represents the tax bill of 49 medium single family homes, multiple combinations of lost jobs, and citizen-facing services.
To further put the amount Clucas refers to as nickels and dimes, it would cover the entire requested amount from the library to keep its accreditation and still leave enough money to save jobs like the DPW, police, Rec and Parks, teachers, or other town employees that are facing termination on June 30. The “small amount of money” is the equivalent of eight teachers. I provide these comparisons not to advocate for one department’s eliminated positions over another but simply to illustrate how callous and fiscally irresponsible referencing $500,000 as a small amount or the equivalent of “nickel and diming” is in the middle of Marblehead’s biggest financial crisis in history.
I sincerely hope Ms. Clucas acknowledges her callous and fiscally irresponsible error in judgement and apologies to the taxpayers whose money she seems to have little respect for, to the employees who are facing unemployment and the students whom she has sworn to advocate for who will now have fewer services provided to them. Taxpayer money, while made up of hard earned nickels and dimes, should never be seen as insignificant.
Sarah Fox
Beach Street
Fox is a candidate for School Committee.
