New School Budget Source of Heated Debate at Town Meeting

There were only three items among the 35 articles on the warrant at Monday night's Town Meeting that generated a lot of discussion: the school budget, changes in local laws regulating taxis and a petition to move the Town Election to Saturday.

Finance Committee members John Mroszczyk and Michael Daley, in somewhat of an unusual move, submitted a minority report on the floor of Town Meeting in which they sought a $229,470 reduction in the proposed $34.4 million school budget for Fiscal 2014.

The new budget represents a 3.2 percent increase from 2013 and the minority report stemmed from a 7-2 vote by the Finance Committee in support of the school budget.

Daley's wife Andrea, who is a Town Meeting member, and other proponents of the measure said they were trying to send a message to school officials that education spending in town needs to be reigned in, especially in light of student enrollments in the district remaining relatively flat or declining in recent years.

She also argued that once the new regional vocational school and a middle school program at St. John's Prep both open, they will only further drain students from the Danvers Public Schools.

"Danvers High School has basically become a prep school for college. And we definitely need a vocational school to train people," Andrea Daley said.

Mark Zuberek, a former Selectman, noted that education expenses in Danvers rose from $34 million in 2003 to nearly $61 million in 2012 without much of a change in student population size. He said every other town department, however, has been able to trim expenses and help save taxpayers money.

"This proposed reduction is only a down payment of what has to happen. Taxpayers cannot keep reaching into their pockets every year," Zuberek said. "The School Department has to realize there is no endless well of money available."

This particular reduction, which was rejected by a majority of Town Meeting members, would have brought the school budget more in line with increases proposed for other town departments at 2.5 percent and cut spending for several new positions.

Former School Committee member Bill Bates said those positions are all important ones, and in many cases, were actually cut in recent years due to budget constraints. He said the proposed reduction would also conflict with current contractual agreements and pose hurdles for the school board if it were to pass.

"Your School Committee doesn't need to be reminded there is no bottomless pit," Bates said. "I know how hard we worked to try to educate students and stay within the budget."

Arthur Skarmeas, a current committee and Town Meeting member, echoed those sentiments and said that in some cases, positions are aslo dealing with restructured administrative jobs.

"There were multiple hearings...and not one person ever asked a question about the budget," Skarmeas said, noting town and school officials collaborated closely on the finances for months leading up to Monday night.

He added that his colleagues are cognizant of the impact the budget has on taxpayers across Danvers, but noted other neighboring school districts are asking for even larger increases this year and already take up a larger portion of their respective town or city budgets.

"[Danvers] is always below average on costs; we do a very good job on saving money and providing a good education," he said.

School Committee Chairman Eric Crane said the additional positions included an intervention specialist, therapeutic teacher, world language teacher, basic skills teacher, a speech and language pathologist, social studies and science teachers, an English Language Learners teacher, a middle school curriculum director and a director for DanversCARES.