Salem School Committee unanimously adopts $81.8 million FY27 budget after debate over family‑engagement roles

The Salem School Committee voted unanimously April 27 to adopt the district’s proposed FY27 budget of $81,755,368.

Member Cornell moved to adopt the budget and Member Hoffman seconded; after brief remarks from Member Stott praising transparency and tracking commitments, Chair called the motion and the vote carried with no oppositions.

The superintendent opened the meeting’s budget discussion by addressing public concern over proposed reductions to family engagement facilitator (FEP) positions. She said the district is advocating to retain current staff while also proposing a four‑part family‑engagement strategy intended to spread responsibility across the system. "We aim to maintain systems currently in place to address chronic absenteeism," she said, and outlined plans to require family‑engagement goals for every educator, improve role clarity among student‑support staff, and build training and fellowship offerings through the Welcome Center.

The district also committed to quarterly monitoring of specific metrics, the superintendent said: attendance and chronic absenteeism rates, family participation in at least five hosted events, a districtwide family‑survey measure of self‑reported belonging, and workforce diversification metrics. "Monitoring these metrics quarterly will ensure that we're not just making changes and then forgetting about it, but rather closely watching progress and being held accountable for continuous growth and improvement," the superintendent told the committee.

Member Stott, speaking in his first budget season with the committee, said he was impressed with what he described as transparent deliberations and a memo responding to community feedback. "I am impressed with the conversations that were had, the transparency that was had," he said during the meeting.

The committee also approved a set of year‑end transfer requests (moving smaller non‑personnel balances into stipend/personnel lines for end‑of‑year family events) and several personnel‑related job descriptions tied to merger planning, all by unanimous votes.

The budget vote concludes the committee’s formal adoption of FY27 spending; the superintendent had submitted the proposed budget packet presented to the committee on April 6 for consideration during the meeting.