Swampscott Town Meeting Members Side With Schools On Budget Difference

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A lengthy Swampscott town meeting debate on two versions of the town budget ended with members voting to accept a Select Board-backed budget amendment that restored $130,000 to the school budget through $109,000 in revised lodging tax estimates, town cuts and an additional $21,000 in tax levy increases.

The Finance Committee had recommended that a late revised increase in health insurance costs be split between trimming both the town and school budget, while school officials claimed that those cuts would result in lost staff after extensive efforts had already been made to reduce every dollar possible from the requested amount.

"I am here to tell you that we've already done the dirty work," School Committee Chair Glenn Paster said. "If the money is not returned to the school department, there will be layoffs. Whether it's your son's or daughter's kindergarten teacher, whether it's your son's or daughter's AP teacher, I have no idea.

"But we have nowhere else to go."

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Superintendent Pamela Angelakis said that the schools are already facing about a $300,000 deficit based on increased special education costs and a loss of $100,000 in Title 1 grant funding.

The Select Board last week did a town budget "scrub" that resulted in additional town-side savings from items such as reduced legal budget, the elimination of staff cell phones, maintenance and janitorial reductions, and professional development reductions. The Select Board opted not to take the balance of $21,000 from contractually obligated employee bonuses or a proposed salary reduction from staff making more than $100,000, instead putting it on the tax levy, which will add about $3 more to the bill for a median single-family homeowner.

That total increase is now expected to be about $735 per year for the median single-family homeowner.

The Select Board confirmed their vote by a 4-1 margin prior to Monday's town meeting.

The Finance Committee argued that its original budget recommendation should stand, considering the schools were already getting about a 5 percent increase over last year, while the town departments were increasing by less than 1 percent.

Moderator Michael McClung originally judged that Select Board Chair Katie Phelan's amended budget motion failed a hand vote of town meeting members. But after Paster requested a standing vote and count, it was revealed to have passed 134-98.

The amended $75.6 million budget then passed by near-unanimous vote.

Town meeting member Gerry Perry asked for an immediate reconsideration of the budget passage — in hopes that reconsideration would not pass — as a means to avoid the scenario that played out at last year's town meeting, where a budget increase ticketed for the schools was reconsidered and voted down the very next night.

With the reconsideration's failure, it cannot be brought up for a third vote.

(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.)