Salem Schools To Cut Jobs To Close $4.9 Million Budget Gap

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools will cut the equivalent of 56.5 positions — including not filling open positions, shifting employees within the district, and eliminating some personnel — in a proposal to close a $4.9 million budget gap for Fiscal Year 2026.

The budget cuts were detailed during this week's School Committee meeting, with a public budget hearing set for April 14, and a final School Committee vote on the budget to be sent to City Council scheduled for April 28.

"This is my 12th year as a superintendent and this is by far the hardest budget season I have ever been through," Superintendent Steve Zrike said. "Not totally unexpected. We've been planning for this for a long time.

"There are no good choices here. This is the land of terrible choices. We have to make what we think are the best choices in a difficult situation."

• Salem Public Schools Work To Close $4.9 Million Budget Gap

Zrike said the deficit is because of rising costs — both non-personnel like utilities and transportation, as well as personnel costs related to higher insurance premiums and salaries through recent contract negotiations and new collective-bargaining agreements.

"Those were the right things to do," Zrike said. "I don't want anybody to think there is any blame to be put on our staff. We were not competitive (with salaries). In our strategic plan, it says we want to increase our benefits and salaries of our staff because we want to be competitive in our region — and we were not. We needed to be and we made an important decision and partnership with the (Salem Teachers Union).

"No regrets."

Zrike said state funding of schools has not kept up with inflation and that Salem has not gotten its "fair share" of state aid in recent years.

Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Pauley said that as the city has had, at least a perceived, growth in wealth in recent years, the burden of paying for schools has been "growing rapidly" on Salem taxpayers.

She said that $3.5 million of the $4.9 million gap has been made up through staff reductions, as personnel make up about 76 percent of the district budget. She said 33 percent of cuts are coming from eliminating vacant positions or retirements, 27 percent of cuts are coming from moving current staff to new positions and eliminating their old ones, and about 31 percent of cuts are coming from eliminating positions currently filled.

She said the hope is that the majority — if not all — "highly qualified" members of the district staff will be able to be retained in some capacity.

Salem High, Witchcraft Heights and Saltonstall School (which is losing middle school grades to Collins Middle School as of next year) are taking the most cuts, while Collins is seeing a modest increase because of the increased number of students from Saltonstall.

• Salem Saltonstall Middle School Grades To Close: School Committee

Zrike said that class sizes, pre-kindergarten, early college courses and special education case workers are areas that were targeted for limited or no cuts, while the suggestion of student fees were rejected after feedback indicated those fees would result in a significant drop in participation.

The cuts also include the elimination of one bus — at an estimated savings of $100,000 per year — that could result in transportation "wait lists" for students at Collins Middle School, Salem Academy and Salem High School.

School Committee member Manny Cruz noted that this is the first of a three-year struggle against a structural deficit that he said is projected to lead to a $7 million budget gap next and a $10 million gap in Fiscal Year 2028.

Zrike noted that some suggestions included eliminating the cell phone pouches that help prohibit in-session use as a way to save money — but said that would result in savings of about $27,000 per year.

(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.)