Swampscott Public Schools Finance Director Cheryl Herrick-Stella met with the School Committee to provide a final preview of school district’s budget for fiscal year 2025.
Herrick-Stella led a presentation that included the most updated version of the district’s goals for FY25. The first two pertained to the new Swampscott Elementary School, as they look to add adequate bussing and staff. An additional staffing goal for the elementary school was outlined specifically for the library and media innovation centers.
“We know many, many years ago when we did away with librarians, that was not a popular way to go,” Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis said. “I’m not opening an almost $100 million elementary school and not staffing it appropriately.”
As it pertains to the middle and high schools, the district aims to seek efficiencies in staffing, while another goal is ensuring that the English language services are properly staffed.
“It’s not about protecting jobs, or positions, or people,” Angelakis said. “It’s about what the student needs and where the resources are allocated.”
The last two goals laid out on Thursday were to reduce the high school classes from 25 to 22 students, and also decreasing the fifth-grade class size overall.
“There are core classes with high numbers, and that’s not okay to me. Even at the high school level,” Angelakis said.
The Superintendent’s recommended budget is $32,445,554, which is a 4.6% increase over FY24. As the second quarter of FY24 comes to a close, the district is projecting an end-of-year deficit of $200,999. However, the Administration, Districtwide, General Education, and School Facilities Cost Centers are projected to all finish under budget. The Special Education Cost Center is the only budget line that is expected to be over budget by $490,411. While Herrick-Stella initially said that the 4.6% increase from FY24 to FY25 has solely to do with mandated and required costs, committee member Amy O’Connor said she believes efficiencies and reductions play some role.
Herrick-Stella noted that Swampscott’s teacher pay remains below the state average, and their year-to-year compensation increases remain below the financial guidelines.
The Committee is scheduled to vote on the budget at their next meeting on Thursday, Jan. 25. Committee member Glenn Paster suggested the Select Board, Finance Committee, and School Committee all review the budget together before approval.
“We need a meeting of all three boards,” Paster said. “I don’t know if we can vote on our budget until we make this presentation board-to-board… I think an open forum has to happen.”
After her presentation, Herrick-Stella suggested that the March meeting between the Finance Committee and School Committee take place earlier and include the Select Board.
“At that point, you can really have the conversation about this year and this year’s budget,” Herrick-Stella said.
