PEABODY — School Committee members approved next year's $59.79 million budget Tuesday night by a 4-2 vote.
Committee members Beverley Dunne and Edward Nizwantowski cast the dissenting votes, Superintendent C. Milton Burnett said. The budget is $314,430 more than this year's, and the extra funds come from the city's free cash.
Mayor Michael Bonfanti initially held the budget to exactly the same as the current $59.48 million, but the total did not cover $4.6 million in rising costs for items like out-of-district special education, salaries, transportation and utilities.
The mayor agreed to cover the $314,430 funding gap on the last day of the committee's formal budget discussion.
Burnett said yesterday that if the School Department learns of other ways to use federal stimulus funds he would try to bring back some of the adjustment counselors, library aides and teachers, as well as reduce fees.
"We continue to get further clarity as to what the money can be used for and what it can't," the superintendent said.
Neither he nor committee members wanted the reductions, but they were subject to the economic reality.
"It's difficult," Burnett said of this year's budget season.
Administrators typically make adjustments based on enrollment and population, but to make changes of this scale it was hard, he said.
Of the 100 people who attended the budget hearing, about six spoke, he said. The hearing lasted about 90 minutes, the superintendent said.
The budget will go to the City Council for approval sometime before the end of the month, Burnett said.
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