SWAMPSCOTT — The School Committee has officially finalized its fiscal year 2024 budget. Details on the budget will be given and a vote will be taken at the committee’s next meeting on March 23, according to Superintendent Pamela Angelakis.
Committee discussions on the final budget started back on Jan. 26, when the Financial Director Cheryl Herrick-Stella began the FY24 budget presentation.
On Feb. 2, the School Committee met with Herrick-Stella again to discuss the rest of the proposed budget, which ended up having a $1.4 million increase, or 4.41 percent. This was the budget Angelakis said she would be recommending.
Then, at a Feb. 16 School Committee meeting, she said she had met with Fitzgerald and the finance team. The budget took so long to finalize because the committee had originally voted on a larger budget than Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald requested.
“As part of this meeting, the Town Administrator made it clear that he cannot support a school department budget that does not adhere to the 2.59 percent guidance that has been our directive,” Angelakis said at the Feb. 16 meeting.
Angelakis, speaking on March 9, let the committee know that many meetings and conversations have occurred regarding the FY24 budget at the last committee meeting.
“Over the last two weeks, compromises have been made by both the school department and the general government in order to submit a school department budget number that both sides can live with,” Angelakis wrote in a statement to The Item.
While the School Committee will vote on the finalized budget March 23, Town Meeting will have final approval.
