Marblehead School Committee To Champion Merits Of Tax Override

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead School Committee is prepared to make its case on the merits of a $3 million supplemental budget that will be up for a townwide tax override vote on June 21.

Town meeting members voted 264 to 73 late on the second night of the annual town meeting to send the proposed general permanent Proposition 2 1/2 override to the voters.

If passed, the general override will add about $397 annually to the average Marblehead property tax bill.

Voters will also be asked to approve a debt exclusion for capital improvements throughout the town — including roofs for schools and other municipal buildings, as well as town road, sidewalk and technology upgrades.

"The School Committee is thrilled with the outcome of town meeting and the passage of Article 46 and 11, enabling both to move to the June 21 ballot," School Committee Chair Sarah Gold told Patch. "We are grateful to the people of Marblehead for their resounding support.

"The School Committee has committed to holding educational forums for people to come and learn more about our budget, the asks within it and how it will benefit our students."

Gold said the School Committee plans to set those dates soon and communicate them to the public.

"This is a very exciting time for the Marblehead Public Schools," she said.

School officials said the supplemental budget is necessary this year to fund curriculum, security and staffing updates that have been put off or ignored for several years. Among those updates are often-cited high school history textbooks that are too old to include the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America.

Among the other items contained in the supplemental budget are a move to free kindergarten for all students and a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director for the district.

"This budget benefits every single one of our students in each of our schools and at every level," Superintendent John Buckey told town meeting members on Tuesday. "As I have shared many times, these are the needs of our district, not wishes or wants."

The override vote comes amid Finance Committee alerts that the town will almost certainly be seeking a general override next year to deal with "systemic budget challenges" and meet its contractual needs.

The Finance Committee said last month that it supports the 2022 permanent general override for the schools.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)