SAUGUS — At a special Town Meeting Monday night, members voted unanimously to support an article submitted by Town Manager Scott Crabtree to create a Supplemental Student Support Reserve Fund for the town’s schools, aimed at supporting the recovery of students after two years of pandemic-era learning.
Crabtree proposed creating the fund with an additional $3 million Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration put into Chapter 70, which provides state aid to public elementary and secondary schools, this year. Now that the fund is approved by Town Meeting, the School Committee and Superintendent Erin McMahon are now responsible for proposing a plan for how to spend the funds, which will go before the Finance Committee.
Crabtree said the article is “extremely positive” for both the school department and the town.
“This allows Town Meeting to support direct funding that can go towards student achievement and supporting schools … we’re all very excited about … moving in a positive direction,” he said.
Precinct 2 Town Meeting member Peter Rosetti backed the article, explaining that he believed the town’s elected body should support new initiatives at the schools.
“Saugus has a relatively new superintendent and she has some very, very exciting, interesting plans that are really going to benefit both the students and the parents of those students. I think it’s really important that Town Meeting should show its support for that. The superintendent has a goal that she would like to have Saugus from down at the bottom of Massachusetts schools into the top 10 percent,” Rosetti said. “We as Town Meeting as an incorporated authority should show support by passage of this article.”
The FinCom had previously voted to recommend the article but urged Town Meeting members not to amend it in an effort to prevent the fund from being used for recurring costs. Committee Chair Ken DePatto explained that the concern stemmed from the potential to create a structural deficit if the fund was used on recurring expenses.
Town Meeting members voted to accept the FinCom’s recommendation, and no changes were made to the article.
The written article puts forth several potential uses for the funds, including developing enrichment programs outside of the school day, providing at-home tutoring for students in need, and administering norm-referenced student assessments to identify deficiencies in math and reading.
The article also suggests using the funding for developing and implementing parent/guardian communication and training programs, supplementing existing ESL/ELL learners, ensuring access to technology for students who don’t have it at home, developing extended day programs for students as needed; and developing any program “deemed appropriate and proven effective” with the goal of bringing about student academic and social recovery after two years of remote learning.
In a statement, McMahon said the fund would go a long way toward bolstering the town’s schools.
“We believe this is a huge opportunity for the School Department to expand enrichment options to help engage our students and build pride in the schools,” McMahon said in a statement. “We look forward to exploring how these funds can be used to support athletics, the fine arts, and academics.”
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
