Melrose Voters Reject Override Proposal
On Tuesday, Melrose voters rejected Mayor Jen Grigoraitis’ proposal for a $7.7 million property tax override, making budget cuts for the city and schools for fiscal year 2025 inevitable. 55% of voters favored the “No” side, in an election with 44% turnout.
The Melrose Public Schools (MPS) will face personnel and programming cuts that are likely to increase class sizes at both the elementary and high school levels. Specifically, 17 educators who currently work for MPS will not be asked back for next school year, and 40 new positions that Interim Superintendent John Macero requested will not be created. This includes classroom teacher, support staff, and administrative positions.
In addition, the City of Melrose will not fill three currently unfilled positions, and there will be cuts to recreation, events, capital maintenance, and public safety overtime budgets.
Mayor Grigoraitis has previously stated that she believes Melrose “should be passing regular overrides” in order to maintain the city’s current level of services in the face of rising costs.
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