The Saugus Finance Committee reviewed the school district’s budget request for fiscal year 2025 at its most recent meeting, as Superintendent Michael Hashem gave an update on the district.

Committee Vice Chair George DeDomenico, chairing the meeting in the stead of Chair Kenneth DePatto, clarified that in the town’s books, the budget is split between the town’s budget and the school district’s budget. 

DeDomenico said that talks about proposed budgets often lead to “heated discussion” about the numbers. He added that the town’s side of the budget includes Schedule 19 funding to support the school district, and the presentation at the meeting only concerned the district’s side of the budget. In the town’s proposed municipal budget, DeDomenico said $28 million of the $78 million total is for Schedule 19.

“So when you actually combine those numbers together, the schools do get, believe it or not, the lion’s share,” DeDomenico said. “They get 56% of the total pie.”

The district’s proposed budget, as approved by the School Committee, is $34,268,535, representing a $2,660,910 increase from the FY24 budget.

Hashem said that the district spent a long time reviewing the budget and developing a strategic plan to unify the district’s curriculum, support its teachers, and improve communication between the schools and other stakeholders.

He said the district succeeded during the pandemic in using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding to purchase high-quality instructional materials that the Commonwealth is now starting to mandate for districts. 

“We kind of used the pandemic and leveraged that and leveraged a lot of the ESSER money to get high-quality instructional materials in the areas of math, ELA, middle school history and middle school science,” Hashem said.

Hashem said the state standards have shifted, incorporating more comprehensive conceptual elements.

He said that while it is challenging to implement the curriculum, the district has been progressing.

“The materials that we have now are challenging the students to learn not only the concepts but the skills, and then apply the skills to the next step,” Hashem said.

As a result, he said some of the positions in the budget request are for coaches to ensure that teachers can implement the curriculum.

Hashem also said that the district’s students’ needs have changed over the last 15 months, and that 50% of them are now either special education students on individualized education programs, English language learners, economically challenged, or otherwise require accommodations. 

“We have a situation where there’s a lot of kids that come into our schools that have a lot of individual needs,” Hashem said.

He said that, consequently, many staff positions in the budget are there to support those needs.

Committee member Marc Magliozzi asked about positions created through grant funding that are now being included as full-time employees.

“Was there a plan in place somewhere that somebody may know about to continue to move grants or apply for and receive grants to cover these positions, and/or how did we think we would be able to do this?” Magliozzi asked.

Saugus Public Schools Executive Director of Finance and Administration Pola Andrews said that the eventual ending of grant funding had been considered and that only five and a half positions funded by ESSER are being brought back in the budget request.

Committee member Theresa Katsos asked if the schools are running out of room due to an influx of new students.

“Not yet, but it’s tough to know,” Hashem said. “It’s really difficult to know.”

Hashem added that he thinks Veterans Memorial Elementary is more crowded than the other schools in the district.