To the editor:
During Thursday’s School Committee budget hearing, teachers and parents requested the School Committee “fully fund” the Marblehead Public Schools. Chair Sarah Fox stated that she will not stop fighting until our schools are fully funded. The elephant in the room was, and remains, what does it mean to “fully fund” our schools?
It’s easy to get parents and teachers on board with the idea that our schools need more funding after years of level-services budgets and when facing a second consecutive year of big budget cuts. But fleshing out what “fully funded” schools look like, need, and cost takes work and planning. The “level services” budget presented Thursday night – which will require an additional $2.5 million in funding – will not give us “fully funded” schools. Sure, we’ll avoid some incredibly painful cuts in staffing, but neither of the budgets presented on Thursday night (“level service” and “level funded”) will restore the positions cut in the fiscal year 2023 budget or address the numerous unfunded needs in our schools; nor will they fix the underlying structural deficit that will put us in this exact same position next year. After listening to educator after educator say that what our schools have right now is inadequate, the School Committee cannot possibly believe that a level-services budget for FY25 “fully funds” our schools.
Members of our School Committee talk a lot about unfunded needs and the status quo being unacceptable. So why didn’t they come to the table ready to talk about what those needs are and what funding them will cost? On the one hand, School Committee members postured that they don’t have to operate within the confines of the budget number FinCom gives them and that they have an obligation to come to Town Meeting and advocate for the funding that the schools need. But on the other hand, they said that the school administration only prepared level funded and level-services budgets for FY25 because that’s all FinCom asked for. The School Committee cannot have this both ways.
Our current School Committee members are not responsible for the financial problems facing the Town of Marblehead. They are responsible, however, for advocating for the funding our schools need. That advocacy cannot be all talk – true advocacy would have meant planning and preparation to show what it takes to “fully fund” the schools. Given this lack of planning and preparation, the School Committee needs to stop posturing about overrides and antics on the floor of Town Meeting. School Committee members: listen to your FinCom liaisons and dig into your revolving funds to find as much money as you possibly can to defray budget cuts in a responsible way; demonstrate a willingness to be flexible and collaborative during a time when financial pressures are impacting all town departments; take steps now to stabilize our district leadership; and roll up your sleeves and get to work planning for FY26.
Julie Duggan
Cindy Schieffer
Kate Schmeckpeper