Salem Schools Seek Budget Input Amid Need To 'Divert Resources'

SALEM, MA — Salem school officials are looking for input from staff, families and community members as the 2024-25 budget process continues toward a presentation to the School Committee in April.

Superintendent Steve Zrike said on Wednesday that increases in state aid are expected to be offset by increased expenses, the need to invest additional resources in special education and multi-lingual programs and wage increases that are expected in the new teachers' contract soon to be negotiated.

"We will need to make some adjustments around class sizes," Zrike said. "We have declining enrollment in certain grade levels, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels. We will have to make some adjustments there and divert resources from certain programs that are lower enrolled to ones that are higher enrolled, like the ones for our multilingual learning support and for special education students.

"We have a growing number of students that are on (individual education programs) who are coming to us both as new students as well as students who are coming in as 3-year-olds."

Zrike said a survey will be released for staff, families and stakeholders to share their priorities within the school strategic plan in upcoming weeks and that there will be additional opportunities for input on the budget before it is presented to the School Committee in early April.

The timeline would then have the School Committee approve the budget by the end of April with the presentation to the City Council for approval in May.

The Salem school calendar was also approved for all schools except for Carlton — which traditionally runs on its own calendar — for the 2024-25 academic year.

The highlights of the calendar include a post-Labor Day start, a day off in November for the national election, a return to school the day after Jan. 1, 2025 (Salem has been closed on Jan. 2 in recent years), and the elimination of the "Halloween Break" from this year. Halloween will be a half day for Salem Public Schools in 2024.

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