For the second year in a row, state officials pumped millions of additional dollars into Saugus Public Schools in fiscal year 2024, increasing the Town’s allocation of Chapter 70 money to nearly $12 million. The money is supposed to be a lifeline for a district that was recently one of the worst-performing public school systems in the state.

Yet since the allocations were announced nearly a year ago, Town officials have been mum on how exactly those funds will be spent in the school district and it remains unclear whether or not that money ever actually made it to Saugus Public Schools.

Funds allocated under Chapter 70, the major program of state aid to public elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts, are deposited in a municipality’s general fund, alongside other unrestricted state aid. In Saugus, that means those funds are squarely under the purview of Town Manager Scott Crabtree.

In FY23, when then-Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration allocated an extra $3.1 million to Saugus through Chapter 70, Crabtree took those funds and placed them in a fund under the purview of the Finance Committee and Town Meeting. According to former Superintendent of Schools Erin McMahon, he did so without her knowledge.

When the Student Support Reserve Fund was created, Crabtree and Finance Committee members emphasized that the funds only be used for one-time expenses, meaning school officials could not use them to hire more teachers or create new programs to bolster Saugus’ educational services. Town Meeting voted to create the fund in October 2022. Since then, the School Committee has yet to access a single cent from the reserve fund.

McMahon sought to use state aid in her proposed FY24 budget when she presented it a year ago this week. It was not an unusual step for a superintendent to take, particularly considering the commitment from the state to continue fully funding the Student Opportunity Act. That act overhauled the formula for calculating aid doled out through Chapter 70, which led to Saugus’ spikes in aid. For example, in nearby Peabody, the district incorporates Chapter 70 aid into its operating budget.

But, amid concerns that those funds could be reduced by the state down the road, the committee opted to vote down her budget and strip $1.2 million from it, taking what School Committee member Ryan Fisher called a two-tiered approach to spending, with “day-one basic needs first, and necessary enhancements second.”

“From transportation to new classroom teachers, the goal would be to put these priorities into practice,” Committee member Ryan Fisher said in a statement.

“Currently we don’t have the money in the bank to fund this budget,” School Committee Chairman Vincent Serino said at the time.

Since that time, however, the district’s aid from the Commonwealth has been preserved. Even amid budget cuts at the state level, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has left school spending intact.

When asked this month, Serino declined to comment on how the committee would use the Chapter 70 funds, deferring to Executive Director of Finance and Administration Pola Andrews. But, when Andrews and Superintendent Michael Hashem were asked how much state aid was used in the school budget, Hashem simply responded “we received an appropriation from the Town.” Andrews did not respond.

Serino said he hadn’t been “made aware” of money coming into the school department from the state.

“For me to comment on something that I don’t have the facts on just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Unless I have a firm dollar number and… sit with everyone involved, I’m just speculating and I don’t want to do that right now.”

When Serino was told the allocation was $11.9 million, he said he didn’t know how that figure compared to the year before and didn’t know “where our benefits lie” or if school-insurance costs had risen. He also said the schools represent “just a piece of the pie” in town. Hashem has repeatedly stressed the motto of “one town, one team.”

During a Finance Committee meeting last March, former School Committee member Dennis Gould repeatedly raised the issue of Chapter 70. He was forcefully shut down by Finance Committee Chair Kenneth DePatto, who noted the Town bears the brunt of insurance costs for the school department.

“Every time they hire an employee, it creates a deficit on the municipal side,” DePatto said at the time. “Who’s to say that Chapter 70 money shouldn’t go to subsidize some of the spending the Town’s doing?”

“It’s not the schools’ money, it comes to the Town,” DePatto continued.

As the committee gears up to vote on Hashem’s FY25 budget, Saugus could once again find itself in a situation where it is underfunding its school department, withholding state aid for reasons that remain unclear. And, it is uncertain whether or not Crabtree will recommend a substantial increase in school funding this fiscal year.

In years past, he typically recommended only a $500,000 increase for the schools. In FY24, that meant a proposed budget of $30.7 million — less than the amount school officials said they needed to simply open their doors in the fall. If Crabtree’s pattern holds, the district would find itself with a $400,000 shortfall from its FY24 operating budget of $31.6 million, which was eventually approved by Town Meeting after Crabtree opted to hike the allocation to match what the department had been asking for.