School Committee Dives Deeper into Budget Details for Next Year
By Ellen Putnam
The School Committee examined in more detail this week several aspects of the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), which begins in July.
Last month, it was announced that the City of Melrose and the Melrose Public Schools (MPS) are facing a combined $6.1 million deficit for FY26. This is due to rising costs in a number of areas, including health insurance, special education, utilities, and transportation. MPS will be making $4 million in cuts to close that budget gap, which now will include eliminating four administrator and 31 teacher positions across the district.
One of the most surprising cuts to come out of this budget cycle is the elimination of the middle school principal position - a decision that Superintendent Adam Deleidi explained in more detail this week.
Members of the public commented at the meeting that the decision was “shocking” and “devastating” and that the situation at the middle and high schools would be “unsustainable - this is more than about education, this is about safety.”
“The middle school principal was among the last cuts we made,” Deleidi explained, “but we have a very talented high school principal who I believe has the capacity to run both schools. Saugus and Watertown both run on the same model. It’s putting a lot of faith in Mr Merrill, but I believe that, if there’s one person who can do this, it would be him.”
“It’s an outside-the-box thing,” Deleidi added, “but it could work well, and there is potential that we stick with it if it works well. I’m not saying I want to do it, but there is potential.”
School Committee member Jennifer Razi-Thomas added, “I see the value in having Mr Merrill take over the whole middle and high school complex. He’s got a great team, and they can cross-pollinate from both schools and hopefully help the culture at the middle school. The thing is, you usually don’t make decisions for your organization based on a person, that’s the thing that’s outside the box. And our teachers have gone through an awful lot in the last five to seven years. They’ll rise to the challenge, but it’s a huge shift.”
At the last School Committee meeting, Mayor Jen Grigoraitis asked Superintendent Deleidi and Director of Finance Ken Kelley to move any one-time expenses off the budget and instead request that the City Council fund them through the free cash fund.
By moving Chromebook replacement costs off of the MPS budget, Deleidi was able to restore a few teacher positions that had been cut, including a kindergarten teacher position at the Lincoln Elementary School and a fifth grade teacher at the Winthrop Elementary School, which would to bring class sizes in that grade down from 31.5 students per class.
Deleidi also announced he planned to use some of the funds that had been freed up to bring back a single Director of Curriculum K-12 position. “It’s an extremely important position people may not see,” explained Deleidi.
In the 2024-25 school year, Melrose had a full complement of directors and curriculum coordinators, all overseen by the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning. Last year, many of those positions were cut, and in this year’s proposed budget, the entire department would be eliminated, aside from a single Director of Data, Assessment, and Instructional Technology. (That is Mel Acevedo who, Deleidi quipped, “has a 17-word job title and is doing 4 peoples’ jobs,” which makes her unable to take on many of the responsibilities of a curriculum director.)
The restored Director of Curriculum K-12 would combine the duties of the Director of Humanities and Director of STEM positions to oversee curriculum and instruction throughout the district.
“Really, the only people we have left to provide instruction and support and development to our teachers are our principals and assistant principals,” Deleidi explained, “that is it. We have extremely talented, hard working educators in our district, but without admin providing direction and oversight and vision, you have a bunch of people who are great rowers, but they’re not rowing in the same direction. So to provide that cohesion and coherence, we need people to provide that support.”
“Currently, the department is drastically undermanned,” he went on. “As we are, we only have two directors. We were looking at zero, so bringing back one will be a help, even if we are spreading that person really thin to be able to focus on kindergarten all the way up through grade twelve.”
Deleidi noted that while he is “happy to step in in many different areas,” including leading professional development for teachers in math and Universal Design for Learning, “our focus for next year will be early literacy. Early literacy is not an area of expertise of mine, so I need help there.”
“I would ask who’s going to order books,” Deleidi continued, “because the answer would be me, and I can tell you, from the fact that I’ve sent 45,000 emails since September 1st, I don’t have the capacity to take inventory of books and place those orders.”
In an attempt to further reduce some of the impact of the impending cuts, the School Committee is looking at raising fees for school services.
One of the areas that MPS charges families for is the Education Stations after school program, which many working families take advantage of to provide after school care for preschool- and elementary-aged children. Families can utilize the program for two, three or five days per week, and can pick up their children at 3:30 or 5:30 pm.
The School Committee voted to raise fees for Ed Stations by 7%, which will mean that families who utilize the late pickup option five days per week would now pay $640 per month per child.
The School Committee also voted to raise the fees for the Franklin Early Childhood Center, which offers preschool and kindergarten classes. Students with disabilities receive services there for free; families of students who don’t qualify for free preschool under a special education plan pay tuition.
Under the approved fee increase, families that send their child to the Franklin five days per week will now pay over $11,000 per year - this does not include care during the summer months or other vacations.
The Franklin only runs from 8:30 to 1:30 each day, so working parents who need after school care will pay, after the approved fee increases for Ed Stations, an additional $846 per month for their preschooler, or over $19,000 for the whole year. This is just as expensive as some private preschools in the area, although School Committee members note that not all private preschools offer the top-tier instruction and certified teachers that the Franklin does.
“We’ve jacked up fees on younger families quite a bit,” reflected School Committee member Seamus Kelley. “If you have kids at the Franklin, you just got hit with a double fee increase. And so many families with multiple kids in elementary school are paying for more than one kid in Ed Stations.”
Photo Credit: Nancy Clover
The School Committee discussed but did not vote on a proposal to raise extracurricular fees at Melrose High School by either 10% or 25%. Some members expressed concern that raising fees too much might depress participation rates, and thereby reduce the revenue generated by higher fees.
“When we think about our students and about the whole child,” reflected School Committee member Margaret Driscoll, “for some students, if the band or their sport isn’t running that day, that child might not want to come to school or feel like they belong, because those are their humans and that’s their place. I’d be very concerned about raising fees to 25%, and have some students not be able to participate.”
Near the end of the meeting, Dr Jennifer Turner, the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, whose position is among those that will be cut at the end of this year, shared some promising data about the middle school, including a 50% reduction in disciplinary referrals (sending students to the principal’s office).
The School Committee voted to add 10 positions at the middle school last year despite a net reduction in positions across the district. The hope was that the increase in staff would help raise achievement at the middle school, which is currently the lowest-performing school in the district. Now, all of those positions and more are slated to be eliminated, for a net reduction of 15 teachers at the middle school.
“This data just drives home that making high quality investments in public schools makes a difference,” reflected School Committee member Jen McAndrew. “Putting additional caring and well-trained adults in front of kids, making sure educators are supported and they’re supporting kids. And now we’re facing a situation where we’re not going to do that next year. If we don’t get the override in November, we’ll be facing a situation where we may have to make cuts in other places, including special education, and risk not being in compliance with the law. That’s the situation we’re in.”
School Committee members expressed their appreciation for Dr. Turner’s professionalism in the face of losing her position at the end of the year. “I want people to know that work that takes place behind the scenes is still work,” Dr Turner responded. “Too often, people who are carrying the lion’s share of ensuring we’ve got all trains running on time aren’t seen because they’re not right in front of the kids, but their work is still important.”
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