SAUGUS — The Saugus School Committee voted 4-0 to approve the district’s $30.07 million Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposed by Superintendent Dr. David DeRuosi last week.
The vote ensured the school board met its deadline to submit the budget to the town by the end of the month.
Earlier this week, all five board members expressed their disappointment in what member Arthur Grabowski previously referred to as a “bare bones” budget, with several voicing concern that the new budget won’t support all of the district’s shortcomings.
“I’m disappointed. We had so many ideas when we were elected that we wanted to move ahead with. Then the pandemic hit and it affected everything,” board member John Hatch told The Item. “We’re in a really tough position because we want as much as we can get for the kids, but it’s really difficult to try and gain more money through Town Meeting and other avenues because of how the town’s been affected by the pandemic.”
Grabowski noted that in 2020, Saugus officials did not approve any financial increase for education compared to the district’s FY19 budget.
However, the budget for FY22 represents a $725,674 increase over last year’s approved spending of $29.57 million.
“If you look at the historical funding we’ve gotten from the town, it’s never been adequate,” he said. “The budget does not take into account the measures we need to make the district improve.”
In anticipation of increased social-emotional needs among students as they return from fully remote learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FY22 budget includes funding for a full-time school psychologist, DeRuosi said. He also noted that officials had made a point of keeping the district’s support staff intact in order to help meet students’ evolving needs.
“We are conscious of the academic deficits our students will face next year, and this budget protects our core areas of education,” DeRuosi wrote in his January 14 budget letter to the board. “The reduction of force in this budget has been done in order to support this, and a few other high-priority needs of the district.”
Following the committee’s vote, Town Manager Scott Crabtree must now review the budget and submit his own recommendations to the Board of Selectmen, which must then approve it before sending it to vote at Town Meeting.
“It’s not over yet,” DeRuosi said. “Budget season is a long season. We’ve crossed one barrier but we’ve got a few more to go.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
