MARBLEHEAD, MA — The latest Marblehead School Committee public forum in response to a “lack of confidence” letter signed by hundreds of town residents was largely dominated by budget questions ahead of more expected cuts proposed for the next fiscal year amid continued district leadership turnover and growing staff frustrations.
The forum followed a “conversation with the community” held on Feb. 29 and this time was moderated by the League of Women Voters.
While questions ranged from school policies, to deteriorating facilities, to the recent student restraint incident that led to the departure of student services leadership and the suspension of four faculty members, much of the discussion was about the budget and the effects of proposed cuts in consecutive years.
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“One big piece that I’ve heard, and other people have heard the same things, is what has felt like the last few years the constant need to reduce budgets and do layoffs has been difficult for staff members here,” School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said. “Each year, they are facing, ‘OK, this is this round of cuts and what is next year going to do?’
“For leadership to be constantly making those decisions and being presented to that, and not have the capabilities to build a new strategic plan, in many ways because it’s: ‘What can we get along without this year?'”
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“One administrator used the word demoralizing.”
Fox added that one other concern voiced by those leaving positions in the district has been that the “vitriol” they are hearing from the public is hard for them.
The League of Women Voters said more than 50 questions were submitted for the forum with several questions posed representing a composite of those submitted.
One question centered around the concept of “fully funding” the budget at a time when the School Committee was asked to put forth a “level-services” budget that would maintain 2024 services and staff, and a “level-funded” budget that would require an additional $2.3 million in cuts for next year.
“There seems to be no clarity what ‘fully funded’ means,” Fox said. “To some people, fully funded means no more cuts. Then someone else may say: ‘No, fully funded means everything we need.’ … Then another person says: ‘No, fully funded means getting us ahead so we can be the best district — not just what we need.'”
School Committee member Jennifer Schaeffner said that while the district would like to submit a more aspirational budget, they were discouraged from doing so this year given the reality of the town’s structural deficit and failed general operation budget tax override votes in consecutive years.
“I feel that in the spirit of working with the townside and the finance director that was the appropriate thing to do,” Schaeffner said. “Those two budgets that we were asked to produce, that the townside produced as well, were based on very specific projections based on what the finance director tabulated for the fiscal year. It was based on the reality of our projected revenues.”
The Marblehead Education Association in response to last week’s budget hearing sent a statement to Patch decrying another round of cuts and calling on the School Committee to bring the district’s demand for more school funding to town meeting and a possible townwide vote once again this year.
“We hear loudly and clearly (about that) last week at our budget hearing,” Schaeffner said, “and I’ve been through many budget hearings. I have never seen the kind of support and demand by the staff for funding that we did last week. It’s not just our administration, but it’s our teachers and our student-facing staff who have come forward and have talked in excruciating and painful detail about the challenges that they have with students trying to deliver with limited resources.
“As difficult as that was to hear, it was the truth. And it’s what we need to work with the town and explain what it costs to educate our students.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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