Melrose Schools Budget Passed, But Still Needs $660K

MELROSE, MA — Parents and teachers lined the walls and sprawled out on the floor of City Hall's Aldermanic Chamber as city and school officials echoed the same sentiment: Melrose is out of rabbits to pull out of the hat. But Mayor Gail Infurna may have to find one more bunny.

Superintendent Cyndy Taymore and Infurna both made the bushy-tailed reference to being out of budget tricks Tuesday night before the Melrose School Committee passed a budget that has an additional operating need of more than $660,000 on to the mayor. The budget, which is mostly the one Taymore proposed March 27 but uses revolving funds to bridge nearly a third of the more than $924,000 gap, now makes its way to the mayor's office.

Infurna, who said she will go back to the drawing board with City CFO Patrick Dello Russo in order to find what money she can, can fully fund the budget or send it back to the School Committee. If the budget is fully funded, it will likely mean cuts in other city departments. If the budget is only partially funded, the School Committee will need to make additional cuts.

This isn't a simple subject. Here's the vital need-to-know: The Mayor has to decide how to reconcile the more than $600,000 delta in the school budget, or the School Committee has to make further cuts. Behind this all is increasingly loud talk of a potential override vote sooner than later, because the school budget situation appears to be at a crisis point. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for more on this and other local news.

School Committee member Jen McAndrew made a motion to adopt Taymore's March 27 budget with the following adjustments:

• Accept the offset of $100,000 from the Education Stations Revolving Fund as presented on Tuesday, April 3.
• Accept the addition of $43,000 for the Student Services Position (.05) at the Winthrop School as presented on April 3.
• Correct for a $700 accounting error in the earlier version.
• Utilize an additional $200,000 in Revolving Funs for the FY2019 year.

"These adjustments result in an additional operating need of $667,036.00 for FY2019, which would be sent forward to the Mayor of Melrose for consideration in order to provide an adequate budget for the current needs of the Melrose Public Schools," McAndrew's motion reads.

The motion passed, 6-1. The dissenting vote came from Infurna.

Taymore's March 27 budget, which reduced the delta from more than $1.26 million to more than $924,000 included cuts seen here.

Maribeth Darwin, a parent of two Melrose High students and one graduate, opened public comment Tuesday evening by advocating for a fully funded school budget.

"Currently, the items on the Melrose High School chopping block include one music staff, two and a half teachers, and curriculum materials in a variety of disciplines. The high school!" she said. "The place where we turn children into young adults, the last stop in our educational system. This should be our flagship, our shining star. We need to fund more than a few extra teachers and curriculum supplies."

While the immediate focus is on the FY2019 budget, city officials once again made it clear that Melrose schools are in dire need of additional taxpayer funds. The city doesn't have much room to grow commercially, they argue, and Dello Russo said not to expect a sudden influx of assistance from the state and federal levels. It seems an override is increasingly likely to be put before voters at some point in the near future.

Melrose has not had an operating override since 1992.

"The community is at a fiscal crossroad," Dello Russo said, adding the city needs to be "proactive."

"If we don't take hold of our own situation and work together to make it better, it's not going to be better."

Infurna, much like she did during last week's meeting, echoed those sentiments.

"This is a critical, critical time right now," she said. "This is not a spending or mismanagement problem. It is a revenue problem. That is a fact."

Photos by Mike Carraggi, Patch