MARBLEHEAD — The Marblehead School Committee Goals and Evaluations Subcommittee, consisting of Alison Taylor and Brian Ota, met at 1:30 p.m. on Friday to discuss all goals they have prepared to bring to the next School Committee meeting. Throughout the meeting they discussed three main goals: reviewing and updating all School Committee policies, improving School Committee communication, and providing better documentation and communication of the Marblehead Public Schools budget processes.
The Policy Subcommittee is reviewing all School Committee policies and procedures to ensure they fall within the state’s legal requirements. They will also be looking to update any out-of-date policies or procedures.
The main takeaway from this meeting was the need to improve communication with the community. Some community members feel out of the loop or that the meetings can be hard to follow with people speaking over one another. Subcommittee member Brian Ota voiced his idea of creating a workshop to improve communication between committee members and residents.
Building on the need for better communication, the subcommittee mentioned the want for budget transparency among the committee and the community.
School Committee chair Jenn Schaeffner said, “Our budget process has been very transparent. Our budget is up online and is all year round.”
Schaeffner also brought up the difference between budget transparency and budget prioritization. “What are we prioritizing in our budget?” she said. “How are we meeting the needs from a budget standpoint?”
This regards the ongoing stalemate between the Marblehead Education Association (MEA) and the School Committee regarding safety, leave times, and mainly higher wages. According to the Marblehead School Committee press release from Monday, Oct. 28, the financial requests by the union are too high, and Marblehead does not have enough revenue to satisfy the requests.
In this case, meeting those needs requested by the MEA is harder to reach than simply moving the budget around. Right now, salaries already account for 80% of the budget, according to the Marblehead School Committee. Making that percentage any higher would result in other areas receiving little or no funding at all and possibly layoffs and cuts.
One option would be tax increases throughout Marblehead, which must be brought to a ballot and voted on. Higher taxes would result in a higher budget and increases in wages, but it cannot happen overnight.
“We are still apart,” Schaeffner says in regards to the two sides, “and that is the challenge we are facing right now.”
The Goals and Evaluations Subcommittee will be presenting their draft to the School Committee at their next meeting.
