SAUGUS Vol. 27, No.9 Your Local News & Sports Online! Scan & Subscribe Here! C TE D O AT CAT -FREE- www.advocatenews.net Published Every Friday 781-233-4446 Friday, February 28, 2025 SHOW TIME FOR SAUGUS HIGH The budget season is offi cially underway Town Manager Crabtree briefs selectmen on his preliminary spending plan for the 2026 Fiscal year By Mark E. Vogler T own Manager Scott C. Crabtree has recommended $34.3 million for the School Department for the 2026 Fiscal Year that begins July 1 – an increase of $500,000 over the Fiscal Year 2025 budget approved last spring by the Annual Town Meeting. But that’s still about $2 million less than the proposed Saugus Public Schools budget recommended by Superintendent Michael Hashem and approved by the School Committee earlier this year. Saugus High School’s Theatre Teacher and Drama Club Director, Nick Raponi, relaxed in the Lemoine-Mitchell Auditorium last Friday as the Saugus High School Drama Club rehearsed for tomorrow’s Massachusetts High School Drama Festival. Please see inside for more photos and this week’s “The Advocate Asks.” (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) “The increase does not include the indirect costs paid by the Town on behalf of the School Department and included as part of the total Net School Spending (NSS) calculation required by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE),” Crabtree told selectmen Tuesday (Feb. 25) night as he read from a fourpage budget message he delivered to the board on Feb. 15. “The indirect costs paid by the Town on behalf of the School Department” totals about $29 million in so-called School Department Schedule 19 charges that were itemized in a document reviewed by the Finance Committee last year. The preliminary spending plan unveiled by the town manager includes municipal general fund operating budgets totaling $84.9 million to go with proposed school spending, which adds up to an estimated $119.2 million in total general fund operating budgets. The $15.3 million for the Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds added to the total estimated Expenditure Budget adds up to a total Fiscal Year 2026 expenditure amount of nearly $134.5 million. Selectmen voted unanimously to recommend the town manager’s operating budget, forwarding it to the Finance Committee, which will begin hearings on each department budget before making its recommendations to the BUDGET SEASON | SEE PAGE 2 MARCHETTI CORP. 46 Years of Excellence!! 1978-2024 Regular Unleaded $2.789 MidUnleaded $3.379 Super $3.479 Diesel Fuel $3.499 Kerosene Available! HEATING O L IL ULS $4.759 $3.19 9 DEF Call for Current Price! (125—gallon minimum) DEF Available by Pump! 24-Hour Burner Service Open an account and order online at: Hours: Monday thru Friday 6 AM to 7 PM / Saturdays 7 AM to 5 PM / Sundays 9 AM to 5 PM FLEET Prices subject to change
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