Split Vote On Swampscott Schools Budget Compromise

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A Swampscott school budget deal struck by town and district administration that proposes $440,000 in additional town commitments to the schools in the form of a stabilization fund and capital technology spending, while still requiring $644,000 in cuts for the upcoming school year, received reluctant approval in a split, 3-2 vote of the School Committee on Thursday night.

School Committee members expressed dissatisfaction with both the process that got them to this vote, as well as how Chair Glenn Paster termed the town prioritizing keeping property taxes "artificially low" instead of fully funding education, but ultimately approved the budget that represents a 2.6 percent increase over 2023 funding.

"I will vote very reluctantly 'yes,'" Paster said in casting the deciding vote in favor of a budget that replaces the previous 4.41 percent increase budget the School Committee voted to endorse on Feb. 2.

"This has been a gut-wrenching last few weeks," Paster said, "I am grateful that we have the additional ($440,000 from the town) and I will agree with the rest of the folks who have spoken in that I am unhappy that the number is what the number is. I am very torn with this because as you sit up here as a School Committee member your really only job is to make sure the schools have the money that they need.

"I am truly unhappy with the fiscal policy of the town side. The increase in tax has been artificially low for several years and it is really starting to hurt us on the school side."

School Committee members Suzanne Wright and Carin Marshall joined Paster in voting for the compromise — with both citing reservations about the budget — while Amy O'Connor and John Giantis voted against the budget.

"I am really concerned about this," O'Connor said. "And at the end of the day, I'm angry that this number is coming back before us for another vote because it feels very performative to me. When the general government says, 'this is your budget,' having us jump through all of these hoops to get to that point feels like nothing but performance and I don't appreciate that.

"It weakens everything that the School Board is responsible for."

Town Administer Sean Fitzgerald told all town departments that they would be restricted to a 2 percent increase, plus new growth, for Fiscal Year 2024 — which equals out to about a 2.59 percent increase over 2023. Superintendent Pamela Angelakis proposed a budget that would hit that number in late January, but the School Committee sent her back to restore some of the proposed cuts and she returned with the 4.41 percent increase budget that the Board endorsed.

Angelakis was able to reach the tentative agreement in writing with Fitzgerald last week that puts forth an article at the upcoming town meeting to set up a $310,000 stabilization fund and commits $130,000 in technology spending that Board members said was never properly restored to the schools after it was given back to the town in budget negotiations early in the COVID-19 health crisis.

"I am not thrilled by the work that we are going to have to continue to do but we will do it," Angelakis said. "But I am incredibly grateful that there was a collaboration with the general government side to give us another $440,000 in different buckets. The other thing that I am grateful for is that we have opened the conversation to school technology in the capital budget as long as it meets the criteria."

Angelakis said the remaining $644,000 in cuts will come from examining "creative ways to look at schools" and could include some efficiencies and schedule restructuring.

"We're just going to have to dig down and look at everything," Angelakis said. "Would I love to be fully funded? I absolutely would. But I am grateful that we're sitting here tonight with $440,000 more than we were when I first presented the budget."

(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.)