The School District has lowered its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget to $3.25 million, a $250,000 reduction from the initial $3.5 million plan.
The original budget was proposed at $3.5 million for the 2027 fiscal year. On the town budget side, Town Administrator Nick Connors initially proposed 7.7% increase in the operating budget, or $3.2 million. He announced on March 18 that he was able to make about $973,000 in reductions after reviewing the Select Board’s initial requests. The overall budget will go to the Town Meeting Members’ approval in May.
The School Committee and Finance Committee met on Thursday to review the budget, which Finance Committee Chair Eric Hartmann said is “difficult to project for a variety of reasons.”
“I think this year is especially important that we understand everything and look at everything,” Hartmann said, noting that neighboring towns are looking at budget overrides and Swampscott has a “dwindling excess levy capacity.”
School Committee Chair Glenn Paster said he’d like to go a few more years prior to a new middle school without seeking a tax override.
“Everyone here has one goal and that is to spend all of our dollars in the school budget wisely and to make sure we are protected and that the students and teachers are protected and that tax payers’ dollars are spent the way the tax payers’ intended,” Paster said.
Superintendent Jason Calichman outlined reductions made to lower the budget that were made to lower the budget from a multilingual learner program teacher, an administrative assistant, a bus in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program and one of the English as a Second Language providers in the alternative pathway at Essex Tech.
“Every fiscal year all positions and expenditures are examined to determine if they meet the current student demographics, state and federal mandates and align with our goals for the district,” Calichman said, adding that enrollment is trending up in Swampscott while “almost every other district” is declining.
There were opportunities that could also be “delayed” as well, like a health teacher at middle school, an additional teacher at middle school “to ensure appropriate class sizes,” innovation pathway investments and investments in professional development.
“These are items that were in the original budget $3.5 but now that we’re at $3.25, these are priorities or budget items that potentially we may not fill,” Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operation Cheryl Herrick Stella said. “It’s really going to come down to once we hit July, that’s when we’re really going to have a better sense of what’s the highest need in the district…It’s going to be some combination of these but we can’t tell you at this exact time. It goes back to the needs of the district.”
Herrick Stella also noted that the district found out today that there will be a “large decrease” in Title I funding.
Calichman also said there are needs the district can potentially look to fund in the future like increased needs of administrators, growing career pathways, high school graduation requirement computation and investment in the multi-tier faculty system.
The discussions around the budget are expected to continue up until the Town Meeting in May, Paster said.
“This probably will not be the end of the discussion,” he said.
