Decorated News: School Committee of Marblehead Votes for Submission of Two Budgets to the Town

MARBLEHEAD — The School Committee met Monday 🎥 morning to continue the discussion on the 📷 fiscal year 2024 budget and voted for ☎️ Superintendent John Buckey to present two budgets 📹 to the town before its budget hearing 🔍 next Tuesday. The committee voted to have Buckey 🎥 present a budget including all cuts requested 🎼 by the Town and one including an 📡 override with no additional costs. “We’re required to 🎲 post our budget that we’ll be presenting 🎞️ at the budget hearing by Thursday,” School 🎮 Committee Chair Sarah Fox said. Currently, the committee 📠 does not have the final numbers needed 📷 to finish building the budget. In a 🎯 statement to the Item, Fox said they 🎼 are still waiting for the town to 🔍 close FY22 books. “Until that is done and 🎥 they have a final number of what 🎧 level of free cash is available, we 🎞️ do not know if the number of 🎲 $800,000 is actually the number above our 🎞️ current budget that the town will be 📢 able to support as a ‘balanced budget,’” ☎️ Fox wrote. “We also have not received 📞 definitive guidance on what would be supported 📉 as part of any ‘structural deficit’ to 📢 be included in warrant article 31.” Article 31, 🎭 Supplemental Appropriation and Expenses of Several Departments, 🎼 is “to see if the Town will 🔋 vote to raise and appropriate or transfer 😂 from available funds a sum of money 🎭 to supplement the Town’s General Government operating 🕹️ budget beginning in FY24.” The $800,000 number Fox 🔎 mentioned is the additional amount the committee 🎤 had to cut from their budget, which 🎚️ will lead to job and program cuts. School 🕰️ Committee member Meagan Taylor expressed concern with 📽️ not having the final numbers for the 🎭 committee’s budget. “How do you make decisions if 🎭 we don’t have actual numbers to make 🎬 decisions on?” Taylor asked. Fox said she would 💰 like to present three versions of the 🎠 budget to the town. Those three include 🎟️ one that would include the cuts, one 💡 that would have an override with no 💡 additional costs added, and one that has 🎞️ everything the committee would like to add 🎥 if they had the funds. “I firmly believe 🎞️ it is my job as a school 🎭 committee member to bring forward a budget 📠 that is representative of the needs of 🎗️ our students,” Fox said. “And then I 📻 feel it is the responsibility of the 📷 bill’s voters to say if they want 🥁 to fund that.” Fox made a motion for 📟 the board to vote on whether Buckey 📺 should present all three budget scenarios to 📣 the town. No one seconded the motion, 📺 forcing the board to come up with 📀 an alternative option. The School Committee voted to 📉 present just two scenarios, excluding the ideal 🎥 budget. “Under the current motion, we are accepting 🎯 the advice from the administration, which is 🎚️ to present the two scenarios and go 📟 under with the town under Article 31 💿 for the level service budget, and that 🕰️ he can operationalize either those,” said School 🎲 Committee member Thomas Mathers. Four members voted yes 📢 for the motion and Fox voted no. “Dr. 📠 Buckey, you have your direction, and those 📀 will be the numbers that are presented,” 🕰️ Fox said. The next school committee meeting is 🔋 Thursday at 7 p.m. and the budget 📷 hearing is next Tuesday at 7 p.m.