SAUGUS — The Saugus Finance Committee has set the date for its review of the school budget, and the announcement came with a new location: the Town Hall Auditorium.
This comes after multiple residents called for the meeting to be moved from the conference room at Town Hall, where the Committee typically hosts their meetings, due to the expected number of people showing up.
The cause for so much public interest comes with the town recommending a budget increase of $1 million, which is less than what the school is currently asking for. The Board of Selectmen approved a budget totaling $35,768,535, compared to the $37,606,374 the school requested and the School Committee unanimously voted for.
During the Finance Committee meeting on April 15, Town Meeting member Matt Parlante had asked about possibly switching to the larger venue.
“There hasn’t been (a change of venue request), but I’m expecting it. But I’m having the meeting in here. I’m not going to have a change of venue for it. We’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work. It became confrontational. We didn’t get to perform our task on the budget. The police had to be called. It’s important for this Committee to get answers and questions to the School Committee, to the business manager, and the superintendent. That’s my intent,” Chair Kenneth DePatto said.
“We had to take a recess, and then we had to adjourn, and then the police came. And I’m not going to expose my Committee, who are all volunteers, to that type of activity. I can’t ever again,” he said.
Parlante asked if that was a violation of Open Meeting Laws, but DePatto said he had checked into it and it wasn’t.
“We are having a public meeting, and it’s a meeting, it’s not a hearing… We will not be violating any,” he said.
Despite this, the upcoming meeting on April 29 currently states that it will be held at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Auditorium, not the Town Hall Conference Room.
