Swampscott Schools, Town Administration Still At Odds Over Budget

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — While still two months removed from budget submission to the annual town meeting for approval, there appears to be little bridging the gap between the town administrator allocation for Swampscott Public Schools and the budget that the School Committee unanimously approved at its Feb. 16 meeting.

The budget number put forth at Wednesday's joint meeting of the Select Board and Finance Committee was largely the 2.59 percent target number that Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said meets "a 2 percent increase, plus new growth" number he charged the School Committee to meet early in the process this winter, and not the 4.41 increase that the School Committee approved after sending Superintendent Pamela Angelakis back to restore some of the cuts from her initial budget, and instead propose a budget she told the Committee on Feb. 16 that she "believes meets the needs of all of our students."

The budget approved on Feb. 16 was $584,742 higher than the one proposed on Jan. 30 when the administration submitted one that would meet the town's guidelines but included $650,000 in savings as well as the use of nearly $800,000 in "circuit-breaker" funds. The School Committee bristled that night at what members called a budget to meet the town's number as opposed to fully funding the district needs, and asked Angelakis to restore up to $1.4 million in cuts and circuit-breaker fund borrowing.

The superintendent largely split the difference in the revised budget that restored some of the proposed cuts, as well as $200,000 in technology spending that officials said once came under the town's capital improvement budget but was shifted to the schools during the COVID-19 health crisis and never reconciled.

"Make no mistake," School Committee member Amy O'Connor told the Select Board during public comment on Wednesday, "an underfunded budget means cuts. Rising costs have outpaced the town's guidance while the town has record amounts of free cash, stabilization funds and other similar savings. Not growing the school budget to keep pace with actual costs means cuts.

"So while you crow about holding tax rates to record lows and still purchase a money-generating property (the seafront Hawthorne Restaurant) to turn into a park, our school services will be underfunded."

Fitzgerald countered during the budget presentation that the number he presented Angelakis with was the one that could be afforded within this year's budget and "still allow us to balance the broader priorities of the town." He told the Select Board that certain aspects of the budget other than schools — including snow-and-ice removal and projected health care cost increases —were underfunded to make the numbers work with any increases in state aid needed to make those items whole.

"It's important for us just understand that we have obligations to our youngest citizens and we have ethical obligations to everybody that we balance the financial obligations of our town," Fitzgerald said. "We've had a great relationship with the School Committee and the Finance Committee over the last few years. We've been able to work through any number of complicated budget issues to keep Swampscott in a very solid financial position."

Fitzgerald said one area of compromise could be a "special education stabilization fund" that would help offset unexpected increases in that line item without it putting as much pressure on the general school budget. But he indicated, in what has become a familiar refrain, that general increases in all budgets across the board — including the school budget that it was said makes up nearly two-thirds of town expenses — will be severely limited going forward if there is not more economic development in the town to shift the tax burden off of residents and property owners.

"We're not going to cut our way out of these problems," Fitzgerald said. "We are going to get our budgets as tight as we can and then we are going to start to cut into the bone."

(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.)