The Melrose Messenger

Melrose Schools Face Cuts If No Override Vote

At Tuesday night’s school committee meeting, Superintendent John Macero and Mayor Jen Grigoraitis outlined the difficult choices they currently face: make cuts to the school budget and to other city departments or convince Melrose voters to approve a Proposition 2½ override before the fiscal year ends on June 30th.

Several weeks ago Superintendent Macero proposed a budget for the 2024-2025 school year that would address the needs outlined by the principals of each school. The budget featured 15 new positions at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School to respond to growing class sizes, and additional special education and student support positions throughout the district. This proposed budget would total $51 million and would be funded by a combination of state aid, school department revenue, and city contributions.

However, Mayor Grigoraitis made it clear on Tuesday night that, even with significant cuts to other city departments (potentially 5-10% of each department’s budget), it would be impossible for the city to fully fund the school department’s budget request for next year. While the city could pull together funds for a total of $46.8 million for the school budget, this would still leave a gap of $4.2 million in the budget.

Although the city’s contribution to the school budget would be 6.5% higher than last year, state aid has only risen by 1%. And due to rising costs within the school budget and growing enrollment (projected at 55 additional students for next year), even a larger school budget than last year would result in cuts to services.

One of the largest cost increases within the school budget this year will be tuition for out-of-district placements. These placements are legally mandated for students with disabilities whose educational needs are not being met within the school district. While only 66 students need these services (out of a total school population of over 4,000 students), out-of-district tuition increased by 14% last year, and the projected cost of out-of-district tuition this year for those 66 students will be over $4.7 million. On top of that, transportation costs (much of which is for out-of-district placements) have increased dramatically as well and are now over $2 million.

Several parents shared during the public comment period that cuts to special education would only “kick the can down the road,” requiring more out-of-district placements in the future. On the other hand, they pointed out, taking steps now to improve special education programs within the Melrose Public Schools could potentially reduce the need for future out-of-district placements.

Macero said that he would need to work with the school principals to determine where $4.2 million in cuts to the proposed budget could be made, but he suggested that it would be necessary to cut at least 40 full-time equivalent positions (FTEs). An FTE indicates how many hours of work a position is expected to require and correspondingly what percentage of a full-time salary the staff member receives; an elementary classroom teacher is often a 1.0 FTE employee, while support roles such as paraprofessionals and specialists might be less than that.

The school department's proposed budget would add 36 total FTEs to the district, so the reductions Macero referenced would likely include a combination of eliminating many of the proposed positions, restructuring that would result in a staff member shifting to a different position or school, and reductions in force, whether through retirement or through layoffs. While the precise implications of this reduced budget for staff and students alike are not yet clear, Macero shared that it would likely result in larger class sizes and fewer program offerings throughout the district.

Grigoraitis informed the school committee that she is considering making a request to the city council for a Proposition 2½ override vote before the fiscal year ends on June 30th. An override vote would allow Melrose citizens to vote on whether to raise property taxes in order to fully fund the school budget, and the city budget as a whole. However, funding the city budget through an override would depend not only on the city council’s approval, but on a majority of citizens voting in favor of the override.

All seven school committee members supported the idea of an override measure. Jennifer Razi-Thomas said, “we have underfunded our schools for years,” and an override vote would provide “the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to have an honest conversation with the public” about the issues facing the school system. Jennifer McAndrew pointed out that many towns are facing similar decisions right now, and Margaret Driscoll observed, “no one is coming to our rescue but us.”

Posted April 11th, 2024