SAUGUS — Pola Andrews, the school’s executive director of finance and administration, presented the latest finance report at Thursday’s School Committee meeting.
“The Saugus Public Schools has expended and encumbered, as of Jan. 31, $17,387,047 and 52 cents…This is seven months into the fiscal year and halfway through the school year, and we have 52% of the budget still remaining,” Andrews explained.
For the school, this means the operating budget is still doing well.
Andrews continued to explain that, due to the small turnover, unpaid days, and leaves, she has been reallocating savings for other coverage.
“Some of the things we’re covering are, for example, custodial supplies. It’s cough and flu season, and custodial supplies get used. We are also covering the cleaning services, which are also responsible for snow removal,” she said.
Another discussion was about line-item shifts occurring at the high school. Andrews explained that Principal Dr. Carla Scuzarella was reallocating lines to support the needs in her building.
Next, she discussed the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds that the school had available in September.
“We were able to use that ESSER funding for some of the summer special education needs. So, we’re reallocating that to cover some of the medical therapeutic services that we need to provide now,” she said.
Andrews continued that the school was unable to hire two of the medical service providers that they needed. Instead, they had to contract out, which led to a shift from salary to contract services.
“You have also in front of you the revolving account balances as of December 31…When you look at the fund balances, they are all positive, which they need to be,” she said. Andrews continued that she projects these funds all the way to the end of the year and keeps a very close eye on them.
With the budget looking good so far, Andrews hit on one major issue: inflation.
“We will be tapping into the revenue that’s arriving this year. We will not be able to carry the full balance into FY26 as we would like, and that is because our community is mirroring what’s happening across the Commonwealth,” she said.
Andrews dove deeper into it, explaining that there is an escalating need for special education services but that inflation and the rising prices of the services are a problem. She has continued to remain tapped into the problem, spending time watching presentations that discuss the issue.
“The Commonwealth is very aware that all public school districts are struggling with this, and they’re looking again to do something with the formula to assist us,” she said.
Andrews shifted to other concerns in the revolving accounts, highlighting the athletic revolving.
“As you can see, the expenses are outpacing the revenue. We were able to shore up funding at the end of the year last year, but it’s not a sustainable model,” Andrews said. In looking for a way to solve this problem, she is working with the athletic director to figure it out.
“Preschool is the same situation. Since the pandemic and since we’ve had all the grant funding and any turnovers that were captured, any excess at the end of the year…It’s trending in a direction that is not sustainable,” she said.
Andrews said that these were some of the difficult conversations being had in the district and that she knows the school does not wish to burden the families but that inflation is hurting the school just like it is hurting everyone else at this time.
Before the end of her presentation, Chairman Vincent Serino asked a key question: “Whitsons on the food service side, we have a contract locked in with them, right…Do they come in with surcharges or anything? The cost of food is going up. Do they pass that on to us?”
Andrews was able to ensure that this would not be a problem for the committee as they provide universal free meals, meaning they are all reimbursed, covering the management fee and the administrative fee.
After the presentation, the committee was left to vote on whether they wanted to pass Budget Amendment 2, which is connected to the reallocation of funds, some of which were discussed during Andrews’ presentation. A motion was made, and the School Committee voted unanimously to pass the amendment and accept the financial report.
