December 30, 2023 / By mobanmarket
MARBLEHEAD, MA — With the Marblehead School Committee expected to have to choose between a so-called “level services” budget and an “austerity” budget, once again, for the upcoming school year, School Committee Chair Sarah Fox requested a third budget be formulated that potentially includes additional funding for special education after a night in which educators, friends and families said diminishing support services were leading to dangerous conditions within the district schools.
Fox made her request during the budget discussion after dozens of Marblehead teachers, parents and teachers packed an emotional School Committee meeting on Thursday night to voice their concerns and demand action against the current student services administration as part of what the Marblehead Educators Associations called “dysregulated students” causing fear and disruption in the schools.
“When we hear what we’ve just heard,” Fox said, “I want a deeper dive into the special education budget and to make sure that what is being budgeted is in alignment with meeting the (individual education plans). We’ve talked about that, and that a grid needs to exist, a document needs to exist in our district that looks at the number of hours for every service committed, and that needs to match up with the amount the employees (needed) to cover those services.
“If not, and we need to make additions, I will fight on the floor of town meeting to make sure that we are meeting what we need to.”
(Also on Patch: Marblehead Teachers, Parents Decry Safety, Lack Of Support In Schools)
The teachers union two weeks ago took a vote of “no confidence” in the student services leaders for what the union said was their inability “to secure safe and healthy learning environments in our schools” following a student restraint incident and subsequent staff paid leave suspensions of four faculty members at the Glover Elementary School earlier this month.
The union said 97 percent of the district’s 260 teachers, paras and tutors voted in favor of the “no confidence” vote and statement sent to Interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness calling for the dismissal of Students Services Director Paula Donnelly and Associate Director of Student Services Emily Dean.
McGuinness sent a letter back to the MEA prior to Thursday’s meeting saying that she did not believe removing the administrators was appropriate at the time, but said during the superintendent’s report at the Thursday meeting that she would “reassess as new information becomes available to me as it has this evening.”
The School Committee went into an executive session to discuss the “no confidence” vote, the MEA letter and any next steps, and did not return to open session.
Fox’s budget request comes after two consecutive years in which the School Committee proposed general tax overrides to fill what members called budget gaps after years of underfunding the schools, and those tax overrides were soundly defeated by Marblehead residents.
Last year, the School Committee heard proposals of a level-services budget that would be funded through the override, an austerity budget that included the loss of the equivalent of 31 full-time positions and services should the override not pass, and a so-called “aspirational” budget based on what school administrators determined would be optimal funding.
The School Committee later scrapped the aspirational budget last year with the district forced into most parameters of the austerity budget following the failed general town budget override.
Fox allowed during the meeting that while there was no expectation that an aspirational budget was an option this year, she did believe the night’s staffing support discussion warranted consideration for special education funding that went beyond what would be considered “level services.”
“We’re not in a financial situation to go everywhere aspirational,” Fox said. “But we absolutely owe it to every student, staff member and community member to make sure we can properly staff what we need for the needs of our students.
“It’s an additional level of work. It’s beyond what we were asked to do from the town. But I can say I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that we’re getting to that minimum.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Categories: