Salem Mulls Merging Elementary Schools Amid Structural Budget Deficit

SALEM, MA — A preferred elementary school consolidation plan appears to be emerging amid attempts to help mitigate Salem Public Schools budget deficits — both immediate and long-term — through school reconfiguration.

Superintendent Steve Zrike and the School Committee have held a series of board meetings and public forums in recent months to inform the public about the potential plans designed to reduce costs, while continuing to elevate learning, empower educators, center belonging and strengthen the foundation of what officials have called steadily improving student achievement across the board.

"This is not just about this school year," Zrike said at a recent forum. "This is about the future and running a district that we can wrap our arms around, that we can do so efficiently, and make sure that we can continue to invest in the high-quality programs that we have."

Zrike said the schools are facing between a $4.5 million and $5 million deficit for 2026, with expected deficits in future years because of increases in staff pay in the most recent teacher contract, as well as rising costs related to utilities, transportation and out-of-district special education that are exceeding the rate of inflation.

He said school reconfiguration considerations are based on that Salem has more schools than other cities of its size (11 in the Witch City compared to an average of 7.5 statewide for similar-sized communities), that there are about 200 empty seats in classrooms currently in use as elementary schools, with the capability schools serving up to 1,300 more students than are currently enrolled in Salem Public Schools.

"Nobody wants to sit here and talk about reconfiguring schools," he said at the forum. "That is not what gets me up in the morning. Nobody gets up in the morning to do that. We are not interested in causing disruption. I am an educator. I did not get into this work to have to merge buildings.

"But we also have to have hard conversations about the budget. And we have to think in the short-term but also in the long-term about what's in the best interest and the health of this school system."

The School Committee said one of the main objectives was to focus reconfiguration around equity and meeting the needs of the district's most vulnerable students.

"Students who need the most get the most," Zrike said.

The eight original options were narrowed to four, with a fifth option recently re-added.

Of those scenarios, the School Committee on Saturday determined that a "preferred" option was the Scenario #4 that centered around merging Carlton and Saltonstall at Saltonstall with Carlton becoming an early childhood center.

The benefits of that scenario were determined to be expanding equity and access to the Carlton Innovation Plan and supporting the long-term vision of the district. Challenges include requiring educator and district planning and that Carlton lacks a pre-K playground.

A second preferred scenario was the New Scenario #3 that includes merging Carlton and Saltonstall at Bentley, moving Bentley to Saltonstall, and moving the ECC to Horace Mann. Challenges with that scenario are that it is the most complex of the scenarios and requires the most resources, but it was determined that this scenario also most closely aligns with the long-term district visions.

Scenarios that garnered limited or no support included one merging Saltonstall and Horace Mann at Horace Mann with Saltonstall repurposed, merging Saltonstall and Horace Mann at Horace Mann and relocating Bentley to Saltonstall, merging Carlton and Saltonstall at Saltonstall, merging Carlton and Horace Mann at Horace Mann, and one scenario that included no changes

The School Committee expects to vote on a reconfiguration scenario at its next regular meeting on Monday.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)