Maldden alld a Vol. 33, No. 16 den -FREEYour Local News & Sports Online! Scan & Subscribe Here! AADD By Nick Toscani C hristie “Chris” Serino is one of the most infl uential and most revered coaches and mentors in the region’s history on the high school and college sports scene. He coached hockey at Saugus High, UNH, Merrimack College and Malden Catholic as well as baseball for many of his fi ve sons’ teams through their growing years – as well as being the former baseball head coach at the University of New Hampshire. Coach Serino steered Saugus High to two boys hockey State Championships – its only state titles in any sports– as well as two Super 8 State Hockey Championships at Malden Catholic in 2011 and 2012. Locally and across the region, many mourned his untimely passing in October 2012 from a battle with cancer while he was serving as athletic director and CTE OCAT AT www.advocatenews.net Published Every Friday Tenth Annual Christie Serino Baseball Classic set for today in Malden Field includes host Malden HS, East Boston and Greater Lawrence Tech Christie “Chris” Serino is being remembered for the 10th time with the playing of the 10th Christie Serino Memorial Tournament, which is being played this year at Pine Banks Park in Malden. (Courtesy Photo) hockey head coach at Malden Catholic High School. He was Strategies discussed for Malden school budget relief, but no guarantees on horizon State delegation pledges to advocate for Malden, but goal of changing Chapter 70 formula may be longshot By Steve Freker T he many factors involved in assessing and assigning what the City of Malden must pay in municipal funds to educate its public school students has become akin to a porcupine. This is not new news to anyone, including every city official assigned to budgetary matters and all elected offi cials, at the local and state levels. How to address the fi nancial squeeze that has already been clearly identifi ed and hashed over regularly appears to have no clear resolution. At the April 9 Malden City Council meeting, the entire Malden state delegation appeared State Sen. Jason Lewis D-Malden, 5th Middlesex and gave a detailed, complete presentation on the city’s funding fl ow from the state. State Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Steve Ultrino (D-Malden), Paul Donato (D-Malden, Medford) and Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose, Malden) also gave a status update on what strategies they are pursuing in an attempt to ease Malden’s school funding crunch. They explained that Malden is in tight fi nancial straits as to school funding for a number of reasons, most of them stemming from what city offi cials have long described as inequities arising from how the main source of state funding for schools – the Chapter 70 formula – is calculated. While city offi cials have openly questioned why seemingly similar communities like nextdoor Everett receive substanBUDGET | SEE PAGE 7 only 62. In 2021, Coach Serino and his family received a tremendous honor when the new Football and Track Stadium at the newly built Saugus High School was dedicated in his honor. Today in Malden, for the 10th time, the late Coach Serino’s legacy will be honored again with the playing of the 10th Annual Christie Serino Baseball Classic, where three teams will compete for the 2024 Championship. The Serino Classic originated in 2014 – fi rst hosted by Saugus High School, Coach Serino’s alma mater – and has been held continuously since then, except for 2020, when it was sidelined along with the entire rest of the high school season in 2020. Today, the Malden High School Golden Tornado baseball squad will host the Doubleheader at BASEBALL | SEE PAGE 9 617-387-2200 T E Friday, April 19, 2024 Editorial: School funding formula a clear and present danger for Malden and its financial future here was a popular series of Harrison Ford-starring fi lms in the late 1980s–early 1990s featuring the spy thriller character Jack Ryan. “Patriot Games” and “Hunt for Red October” preceded a third movie – “Clear and Present Danger,” in 1994, about busting up Colombian drug cartels. The age-old maxim goes like this: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fi x it.” What if we are talking about the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Chapter 70? What if it is “broke” and we can’t fi x it? Does all of this mean we are looking at a scenario where the City of Malden could be looking at going broke – to coin a phrase – straight in the eye? Talk about a “clear and present danger.” The status of school funding, including discussions of the “hows,” “whys” and “whens,” spins around the fi nancial roulette wheel and, eventually, all fi nish up in the same slot – that would be “HOW MUCH?” “How much” as in, what will the state be providing to Malden in funding assistance to educate our public school students – this year and in the future? The recurring answer appears to be a broken record – “not nearly enough.” The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Chapter 70 formula, which determines how much money the state is going to provide to the cities and towns, has become a prime topic of discussion for as many years as we can remember around municipal budget time. This prime discussion does not dominate budget planning sessions only here in Malden, but in every community throughout the state. Malden’s state Sen. Jason Lewis (D-5th Middlesex) said the very same last week when he and the Malden state delegation gave an extremely detailed and complete presentation on the status and content of Chapter 70 school funding at the Malden City Council meeting. “The surprise, the shock [over Chapter 70 funding] is taking place across the state, including other communities I represent,” said Lewis, whose 5th Middlesex includes Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefi eld and part of Winchester. At the April 9 meeting, to use baseball parlance, as City Council President Stephen Winslow did on a couple of occasions at last Tuesday’s meeting, the state delegation, led by Sen. Lewis, covered all the bases. The picture they painted was far from rosy. At times, it teetered on grim. Malden’s increase in its Chapter 70 funding from the state for this year’s FY2025 school budget – from FY2024 – is a far from whopping $681,000, or about 1.3%. The state’s Chapter 70 funding in all is some $63 million. In the grand scheme of the soon-to-be-fi nalized Malden Public Schools budget, $681K pays for about six teachers’ salaries in a district where the average teacher’s annual paycheck is approximately $91,000. On the other end of this is that the state is calling for the City of Malden to increase its share of funding for the FY2025 school budget by approximately $3 million. This is no shocker for Malden City Councillors. The state’s school funding formula has been pointed to as a cause for concern for years, now, by every elected offi cial in FUNDING | SEE PAGE 10
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