SAUGUS — Superintendent of Saugus Public Schools Michael Hashem took School Committee members through his proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year Thursday evening. The meeting was strictly budgetary, and no public comment was made.
Hashem said that he would be walking everyone through the budget process as he understands that committee members just recently received the budget on Monday.
“You’ve had a little time to look them over, but not nearly enough,” Hashem said. “Plus, it hasn’t necessarily been explained to you in full. That’s what tonight is about.”
This meeting and the days following are meant to give the committee a chance to digest the proposed budget before the budget hearing on Jan. 16.
Hashem said the district has a strategic focus that they’re trying to build everything around. “We’re trying to build support and support a thriving, committed, well-trained team of educators [and] leaders dedicated to serving the students,” he said. “We’re trying to build a culture of belonging for students and staff. And ultimately, we’re trying to create the conditions to learn.”
These are all of equal importance, and having one without the other is what creates the bumps in the road, Hashem said.
Hashem also explained that the district has many areas of strategic focus that they’ve been taking in chunks of three. This year, the three focuses are aimed at developing a work culture and environment where educators are valued, appreciated, and motivated; offering students in all grades access to opportunities that match their talents and interests; and providing all students with a standards-aligned curriculum, consistently outstanding construction, and supportive learning environments.
Hashem said that these three focus areas are directly tied to the proposed budget.
“We need to maintain the professional development,” he said. “This year, a lot of that was charged to the lingering effects of ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief). We need to continue with the high-quality instruction materials, and we need to maintain our teaching staff,” he said.
The curriculum is going to cost a little more due to the change over the years, with old textbooks taking a backseat to online learning programs that need to be paid for, Hashem said.
“We also focused on adding staff that supported the students outside of the traditional learning environment because we talked about how students on IEPs (Individualized Education Program) [have] special needs,” Hashem said. “Those numbers have gone up. People with 504s have gone up. Our English language learners have gone up.”
In response to this, the school hired additional special education staff–both teachers and paraprofessionals–adjustment counselors, and ELL (English language learners) staff, according to Hashem.
“Again, we need to provide the instruction that matches and the curriculum that supports that,” he said. ” [And] we need to keep the funding going for the athletics and extracurricular activities. Outside of the budget, I do want to continue the enrichment program that is starting to thrive in the middle school and elementary school.”
He also presented a tiered list of staffing and resource requirements for the budget.
“The first tier is the fixed cost increases, including contractual obligations and out-of-district placements,” Hashem said. “These are the things that we need just to continue doing what we’re doing.”
Tier two, Hashem added, is also a part of this fixed cost, which involves the curriculum resources purchased and the need to keep them updated and purchased along the way to keep instruction targeted to the standards that the school needs.
“Tier three is a reserve for the bargaining units,” he added. “All of our bargaining unit contracts are going under negotiation. And tier four is the highest priority of additional staff or anything else we need.”
He also laid out the costs for all the tiers. The proposed cost of tier one is $1,452,889, tier two will cost $219,581, tier three will come in at $592,806, and tier four costs $209,162. The total of all these costs for the tiers is $2,474,438.
Tier four, which involves the highest priority for additional staff, includes a certified occupational therapist assistant, a school psychologist, a high school math teacher, and a high school social studies teacher.
The cost breakdown for the whole of the proposed FY26 superintendent budget is $36,242,973 with the tiers being an additional cost.
