By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The Town Council this week approved Wakefield’s share of the FY 2024 Northeast Metro Tech budget. Wakefield’s total assessment for the FY 2024 NEMT budget is $2,038,570, an increase of $21,502 (1.1 percent) over the current year. That figure is based on an enrollment of 101 Wakefield students.
The total combined assessment for all 12-member communities in the NEMT district is $17,950,172. The overall NEMT budget for FY 2024 is $33,923,146. (The school will also receive $14,072,974 in Chapter 70 state aid in FY 2024.)
Presenting the budget were NEMT Superintendent David DiBarri, school Principal Carla Scuzzarella, Finance Director Jay Picone and Wakefield’s representative on the NEMT School Committee Brittany Carisella.
An Executive Summary attached to the budget explains that the budget was developed to support the school’s mission of providing students with a rigorous academic and career/technical education.
“Knowing the financial constraints faced by our member communities,” the Executive Summary states, “we set out to limit our total operating assessment increase to 3 percent.” The total assessment for FY 2024 of $17,950,172 includes an increase of $485,620 (2.78 percent).
Picone explained that NEMT officials were able to minimize the assessments charged to member communities by utilizing an increase in Chapter 70 funding of $1,304,475. The school also applied $700,000 from the school’s excess and deficiency funds to offset the assessment impact on member communities, Picone said. An additional $1.2 million transportation reimbursement was also applied to reduce member assessments.
The Executive Summary cites continued increases in costs of supplies, contractual step increases, the addition of an assistant superintendent position and increased insurance costs among the factors driving the FY 2024 budget.
Reductions in some areas were used to offset the total cost of the operating budget. Due to retirements and attrition, the salary line item was reduced by $277,925 and a total of $800,000 worth of contractual services was removed from the budget. A $124,600 reduction on the Debt Service line item was attributed to lower interest rates.
In addition, DiBarri said that State Reps Kate Lipper-Garabedian and Michael Day have filed an amendment to the state budget that would retroactively raise the cap on the square foot reimbursements for MSBA approved school building projects. That could further reduce the debt service line item in the budget, DiBarri said.
During public participation earlier in the meeting, several people spoke in opposition to the site of the planned new NEMT building project.
Councilor Edward Dombroski noted that the Town Council does not have any authority over the Voke school project. He asked school officials how citizens could best express their concerns regarding the project.
NEMT superintendent David DiBarri noted that the opponents have reached out to every board in every community in the school district, as well as state officials. But when presented with the facts related to the project, DiBarri said, people understand why the school is being built on the site that was chosen.
“In the end,” he said, “people agree that this is a great project.”
Town Council Chair Mehreen Butt suggested that the Voke School Committee and School Building Committee consider holding their meetings in a hybrid, Zoom/in-person format to increase transparency.