Peabody City Council Approves $174 Million FY 2023 Operating Budget

PEABODY, MA — The operating budget of Peabody Public Schools will increase by about $7.5 million — or nearly 13 percent — as part of the $174 million comprehensive city budget that the Peabody Finance Committee and City Council approved Tuesday night.

The approvals were in line with the requests from Mayor Ted Bettencourt with all city councilors voting to approve the budget except for Councilor Anne Manning-Martin.

Manning-Martin noted that the budget will likely result in an increase of between $225 and $240 in property taxes for the average single-family homeowner in the city next year.

The substantial increase in the school budget is entirely compensated for with a dramatic increase in Chapter 70 state aid, which rose from about $23.2 million for 2022 to $30.7 million for 2023.

The amount of the municipal contribution to the budget is virtually level-funded at $53 million.

"There are several reasons for that," Superintendent Josh Vadala told the Finance Committee. "But the biggest reason is that the pandemic hit Peabody pretty hard. And the number of students who were identified for free and reduced lunch went up by 500 students.

The Chapter 70 state calculation now means that more than half of Peabody's 5,800 students are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

"Part of that was ensuring was making sure we connected families to services (during the pandemic)," Vadala said of what led to the dramatic increase. "And we were able to count that. So we have more need in the district. Therefore, we're receiving more funding.

"And we need to make sure that we're investing that in our students."

The school funding also includes an additional $3.5 million in federal Educational Stabilization funding — or ESSR funding — with Vadala telling the Finance Committee that care was taken to transition that funding to one-time costs because the COVID-19 funding will only be available for a fixed time.

(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.)