NAHANT— The School Committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a district budget of $4,742,332 for Fiscal Year 2025.
Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi led a presentation that explained to the committee the budget’s details, most notably a total increase of $190,157 compared to FY24.
The budget is divided into three portions; Johnson School, district and town. The district portion comprised the largest part of the budget increase at $80,725. The two biggest line items causing the change are a $62,305 increase in tuition for Nahant students attending Swampscott High School and the Northeast Collaborative out-of-district tuition increase of $16,258.
The Town portion of the budget accounted for the second largest portion of the increase at $65,390. Pierantozzi outlined the out-of-district transportation as a significant line item due to future cost uncertainty.
“That’s an interesting one because I have no idea what that’s going to cost,” Pierantozzi said. “The SEEM Collaborative Finance Director is actually negotiating that for about 17 school districts. The word from everybody this year is that out-of-district transportation will be much more expensive.”
Due to this expected increase, Pierantozzi encouraged his eventual successor to offer to pay parents and guardians to transport their own children.
The Johnson School increase is $44,042. Licensed educators are receiving a 2.5% salary increase and paraprofessionals are receiving 5%. Pierantozzi also noted that the school plans to add a sixth grade teacher in the near future.
Pierantozzi highlighted one aspect of the budget in which he was able to reduce costs.
“You will note that the electric and the heating gas budget is actually lower than this year (FY24),” Pierantozzi said. “Since I’ve been here, we have not had to charge our early childhood program for utilities… next year they will be paying utilities as they will this year, which is fair.”
The $190,157 equates to a 4.17% increase.
“I firmly believe that I have presented to you the budget that’s as low as responsible management can tolerate,” Pierantozzi said. “Anything lower than this, in my opinion, would not be responsible.”
The Committee approved the budget swiftly after Pierantozzi’s presentation and expressed gratitude for the level of detail he provided.
