SWAMPSCOTT — During the Select Board meeting on Wednesday evening, the board emphasized the critical importance of making sure the schools are properly funded going into the next fiscal year.
Board member David Grishman spoke on his perspective of the matter. “As leaders, and as chief policy-makers in town, I think we should provide direction to town staff as to what we would like to see, obviously I want to see what we can cut and see that we have as little impact to the town as possible, but I do think it’s important on the school’s side to know how it will be funded.”
Grishman continued, “If that’s done, we can continue our work on our side, to ensure that we have as tight of a budget as possible, but also, we may need to fund whatever the difference is, whatever that delta is… From where I sit, I want to make sure we’re providing that guidance to town staff.”
“I think it would be critically important that our budgets have to be as tight and reasonable as possible,” Select Board Chair MaryEllen Fletcher said. “I think that should be the bottom line of whatever we’re doing.”
Fletcher talked about what she saw as disappointments as work on the budget continues. “The fact that it took Danielle Leonard to go in there and look line-by-line and come up with additional money was pretty disappointing to me as that was really the job of town staff.”
“And the fact that she was able to find the additional items that could be skimmed out immediately, I really appreciate that,” Fletcher said. “But I think it’s important to fund the schools where it can be funded, but I think that looking at everything line by line is critical.”
Fletcher said it was her understanding from previous meetings that the budget would be a work in progress. “It’s really tight, we have got to do the right thing, we have to see the pressure the schools have been under the last few years, and what additional supports they need… I think it’s too early to make a statement, but that’s my opinion.”
Board member Danielle Leonard added to the conversation. “When I sat with the interim town administrator and the head of finance and others, that to me was leaving it to the professionals,” Leonard said. “And Gino Cresta was very adamant about areas he felt where he could be more flexible and think outside the box, and I think Amy Sarro did a really great job.”
“We certainly do need to make sure we’re as lean as we can get, and prior to me taking that step, I don’t feel like we were doing much of anything on this side to figure how we’re going to bridge the divide,” Leonard said. “To David’s point, I think it’s time the rubber meets the road.”
During the discussion, Grishman raised the motion of fully funding the schools going into the next fiscal year.
Vice Chair Katie Phelan commented on her take on the matter. “I think if we have a unified voice to say we would like to put our best foot forward and make this happen as strongly as possible, then it’s more likely to happen than not,” she said.
After the other board members voted in support of the motion, Fletcher said she would be abstaining from voting on the matter. “I have not seen what appears to be a full line-item budget from the schools, to see what can come out of the budget, but I am in agreement that the schools need full support.”
She then approved the motion.
Fletcher expanded upon her perspective on Thursday morning.
“The reason I voted the way I did was because there is an opportunity to scrutinize every line item in this entire budget, including the schools,” Fletcher said. “I am a supporter of the schools, the last thing I want to see are kids not getting a great education or teachers not being paid a good salary… But this is a very large budget, we answer to taxpayers, and I have a fiduciary responsibility to the entire town, and to the taxpayer. I think we have an opportunity there, as long as there’s opportunity to scrutinize it the way it’s being scrutinized.”
