Page 2 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAY, FEbrUArY 27, 2026 Town Meeting member wonders why the School Department isn’t using a special fund to help kids By Mark E. Vogler A t a time when the School Department is seeking more money to run the town’s education system, Precinct 10 Town Meeting Peter Manoogian said he can’t understand why officials aren’t making better use of a special educational fund to help kids recover from the social and academic setbacks of remote learning. Manoogian raised the question at last year’s Annual Town Meeting regarding the Supplemental Student Support Reserve Fund. He raised the question again during Town Manager Scott Crabtree’s presentation of the proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year on Tuesday morning. He wanted to know what the balance is in the fund. Crabtree BUDGET SEASON | FROM PAGE 1 forwarding it to the Finance Committee, which will soon begin hearings on each department budget before making its recommendations to the Annual Town Meeting, which is set to convene on May 4. During the Tuesday morning session, Crabtree expressed frustration with the recurring argument that surfaces during the town’s annual budget debate this time every year – that the schools are being underfunded. “The problem with the schools, they’re just asking for the money,” the town manager said. He suggested that it might be a good idea to prepare a public presentation “to show what the actual costs are.” Selectman Jeffrey Cicolini suggested that the Schedule 19 money be highlighted as a separate use of funds so it’s more clear to the public how much money is spent on Saugus Public Schools. “For this document, we’re almost doing ourselves a disservice,” Cicolini said. “Right now, their [School Department] argument is ‘we need more money,’” Cicolini said. Crabtree stressed that educational performance – not the need for spending more on education – should be the real focus. “We should be demanding better education,” Crabtree said. “The conversation should be brought to the School Department. We should be demanding BUDGET BRIEFING: Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree presented Selectmen his preliminary operating budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year during a Tuesday morning briefing. (Saugus Advocate Photo by Mark E. Vogler) higher standards, higher expectations,” he said. The snow and ice deficit could be substantial this year. “The cost of snow and ice events is always a concern as at any time we can have a snow or sanding/ salting event in the upcoming weeks,” Crabtree said in his budget message. “As you have seen, this winter we are back to a normal New said that close to $4 million is available. “There’s $3.8 million that they’re not accessing to help kids. “If they want to do summer school, enrichment, tutoring, a whole host of things … ELL [English Language Learner]. They could do so much with ELL.” Crabtree introduced a warrant article to create the fund at a Special Town Meeting in the fall of 2022. It was approved by Town Meeting members. Crabtree said that then-Gov. Charlie Baker provided additional monies in Chapter 70 funds for public school, amounting to about $3 million for Saugus Public Schools. This money would allow for a variety of educational programs in the school district that are not currently covered by the School Department’s operating budget. Manoogian, a retired educator and former Saugus School Committee member, did some groundwork on the article that Crabtree authored in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary focus of the fund was to help students whose education suffered from the pandemic. England winter where snow events are occurring on a weekly basis,” he said. Crabtree identified several challenges in preparing the estimates of expenditures in his recommended FY 2027 budget: –Health Insurance – the rates have not been finalized by the provider. The town can expect the rates will be set within the next few months, which means the town administration will have to modify its estimates later in the budget process. –Other insurance – the various property, liability and workers’ compensation insurance premium costs won’t be available until sometime later in the spring. Estimates have been budgeted based on an increase of about 14 percent. –Trash hauling and disposal – the cost of waste collection and recyclable materials continues to increase. –Pension Contribution – the pension appropriated for FY 2027 is more than $6 million. –Regional School Assessments – vocational education that includes Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School and Essex North Shore Tech are budgeted for nearly $3 million. The estimated assessments reflect a 12 percent increase on the FY 2026 assessments. –Construction of the new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School is well underway and nearing completion. Based on the most recent debt information provided by Northeast Regional, the town’s share of existing debt service for FY 2007 is $776,167 – an increase of $225,796 from the current fiscal year.
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