SAUGUS — In an often contentious meeting Thursday night, the School Committee voted 4-0 to pass a $30 million budget for fiscal year 2022.
Committee Chair Thomas Whittredge was not able to attend the meeting due to family concerns. As a result, two of the items on the agenda — the naming of the middle-high school auditorium after the late Nancy Lemoine and Jerome Mitchell and the extension of the Complete Cleaning Contract for a third year — were defeated.
In both cases, Vice Chair Ryan Fisher — who chaired the meeting in Whittredge’s absence — and John Hatch voted for the proposals while John Gould and Arthur Grabowski voted against them. According to the meeting’s rules, tie votes on motions to table are tantamount to ‘no’ votes.
The FY22 budget that was proposed in January was chopped by some $700,000 due to changing circumstances since it was proposed by Superintendent of Schools Dr. David DeRuosi. The reduction leveled the final budget amount to $30 million.
“This budget contains everything we have to do,” said Fisher.
“This budget was built to support the district coming out of a pandemic,” said DeRuosi, attempting to quell the concerns of committee members with issues. “It can be changed. It was planned that way.”
The budget contains provisions for free all-day kindergarten in Saugus, which is something about which Fisher was very happy.
“In addition to everything else in the budget, that is wonderful,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I came here in the first place.”
Last January, committee members felt the budget wasn’t adequate to fit the district’s needs. However, Fisher spoke of how far Saugus has come in the last few years with its schools, and of how the town does not have to worry about upgrading the physical conditions of schools and other big-ticket items.
“We are in a unique position,” he said. “We have a brand-new everything. Everything has a sticker on it. We have been in a strong place, and it has allowed us to do interesting things in the district.”
Lemoine and Mitchell, both of whom have died, were instrumental in putting the town in the forefront for both drama and band. Hatch made the motion to name the new auditorium in their honor, but both Grabowski and Gould endorsed a more general “wall of fame” that would honor other pioneers in the history of the School Department. Hatch then tried to table the motion, but the vote to do so was 2-2.
The same thing occurred with the vote to extend the cleaning service contract. The service was hired two years ago when the former committee voted to eliminate custodians in favor of outsourcing the work.
Grabowski noted that there have been major changes in the physical footprint of the district since then, and where the amount of money the services is paid is tied into the square footage of the combined property, he felt that a closer look was needed before the committee could vote on the bill.
When the attempt was made to table the item, the vote, again, was 2-2 and it was defeated.
