Salem School Committee Merges Elementary Schools In Split Vote

SALEM, MA — A divided Salem School Committee culminated months of public forums and discussions on elementary school reconfiguration with a split vote to back a plan that will merge the Saltonstall and Carlton schools at Saltonstall beginning in the fall of 2026.

Salem Mayor and School Committee Chair Dominick Pangallo cast the deciding vote in the plan that would also relocate the Early Childhood Center at Carlton in an effort to close a projected $4.5 million to $5 million budget gap for next year and consolidate resources long-term.

• Salem Mulls Merging Elementary Schools Amid Structural Budget Deficit

School Committee members Beth Anne Cornell, Mary Manning and AJ Hoffman also supported the "scenario No. 4," while Andrea Campbell, Veronica Miranda and Manny Cruz supported a more comprehensive "scenario No. 3" that proponents said better aligned with the district's equity goals.

The option No. 3 includes merging Carlton and Saltonstall at Bentley, moving Bentley to Saltonstall, and moving the ECC to Horace Mann.

Supporters of the pared-down Carlton/Saltonstall said the No. 3 option would be too complex to implement in one year with up to 700 students changing schools, with some saying adopting the Saltonstall/Carlton merger now would still leave the option of adopting something closer to the more comprehensive option No. 3 down the road.

"We began this budget because of the budget," Cornell said. "That's where it started. ... The budgetary piece is significant. It's important. I want to reiterate my support for (option 3) but I just in the short-term I don't think that I can vote for."

Cruz proposed phasing in the option No. 3 over two years as a way to mitigate the impact on students and seeking additional state aid to close the immediate budget gap.

"My biggest concern with a phased-in approach over multiple years is the loss of educators and the loss of families in the district," Pangallo said. "It creates a degree of uncertainty that could create a fair amount of turmoil in the interceding year, even if all the financial elements came together, which we don't know for sure would happen.

"We all agreed that the concept of scenario 3 is the best configuration for this district. Scenario 4 is the first step in getting to scenario 3. Scenario 4 brings two school communities together so that by the time they are moved, they are moving as one, as opposed to students being asked to move multiple times."

Pangallo said attempting to adopt the sweeping changes in scenario 3 by this fall "logistically fraught."

But Campbell and Miranda stood firm on their position that scenario 3 is the one that best protects the district's most at-need young learners.

"This is perhaps a very short-sighted approach," Campbell said. "I worry that there will be some consequences to it that we can predict here and are going to see."

"I want there to be an understanding that some of these families did not request the Carlton Innovation model for a reason," Miranda said. "And this scenario, to me, feels a lot like forcing on some of our most vulnerable neighbors something they have specifically not asked for.

"And I think that is really harmful."

Superintendent Steve Zrike said at previous forums that the schools are facing up to the $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.

(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.)