SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to approve Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, a $34.3 million request that represents a significant increase of $2.7 million from the prior fiscal year.

Much of the increase is fueled by contractual obligations, with the School Committee doling out raises to each of the three bargaining units for the coming fiscal year after vowing to do so during the FY2023 budget negotiations. The remainder is comprised of both positions transitioning out of ESSER grant funds and specific requests from Hashem and school department leadership.

Those requests included special education teachers and paraprofessionals, an alternative education director to oversee alternative education programs at Saugus Middle/High School, three English language learner teachers, and an assistant principal at the Veterans Early Learning Center.

With the School Committee’s sign-off, the document now moves to the Finance Committee for review, where School Committee Chairman Vincent Serino acknowledged it could face an uphill battle.

“The budget is difficult,” he said, noting that the school department is just one department among many that comprise the complete town budget. “Are we asking for a lot? Absolutely. At the end of the day, do I think we’re [going to] get it? No. But we’ve been here before, and we’ll make it work for everyone. It might be difficult, but we’ll make it work.”

The committee’s vice chair, Tom Whittredge, repeatedly expressed frustration with the structure of the budget increase, saying the committee needed to change the way it does business and not ask for both contractual obligations and other requests in the same cycle. Whittredge said without demonstrating progress or proving that the increased funding has led directly to achievement in the schools, it becomes difficult to continue to ask the FinCom and Town Meeting for additional funding.

But, other members noted that the committee promised the unions it would deliver raises when funds were available and said those raises were essential to retaining existing staff.

“I appreciate the predicament because we’re trying to do everything at once. Sometimes that’s the job, and we just have to find a way to make that work here,” said School Committee member Ryan Fisher.

Fisher noted that the committee is in the early stages of an eventual 20-month process with the budget, which will be constantly adjusted throughout FY25 and concludes in June 2025. He said the budget approved by the committee Thursday represents essentially its sales pitch.

During the public comment portion of the hearing, Saugus Educators Association President Bill Palmerini said the SEA board, the union’s governing body representing the district’s teachers, harbored concerns about the budget when it was first presented. But, he said, members were able to sit with Hashem and Serino, and after those conversations, their concerns were assuaged.

As a result, Palmerini said the union supported the budget “100%.”

“I want to give you my blessing,” he said, adding he felt the budget was fair.

The committee also heard from a pair of parents, one of whom asked what would happen to the district if, as Serino forecasted, it does not receive the full $34.3 million request.

For his part, Serino said, envisioning that he would be putting the cart before the horse.

Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian, himself a former School Committee member, lobbied the committee to seek funding from the more than $4 million situated in the Student Support Reserve Fund created by Town Meeting in 2022. Manoogian listed each of the eight proposed uses of the funds and implored the committee to seek budget requests from that pool of money.

Serino noted that the committee has prepared a number of proposals, including seed money for a School Resource Officer and a new after-school program, to go before Town Meeting when the body next convenes.

Fisher ultimately moved to approve the budget at the $34.3 million request, which cleared the committee unanimously.

Notably, during the FY2024 budget process, the committee opted not to support the full budget request of then-Superintendent Erin McMahon, who was later fired in November, slashing her proposed budget by $1.2 million. Serino, after the meeting, said the committee offered Hashem the “benefit of the doubt” for his first budget proposal as superintendent.

“Every superintendent’s first budget, they deserve a shot,” he said. But, he added he was “not promising anything for next budget cycle.”

Still, a major question remains as the budget process rolls forward — how much money will Town Manager Scott Crabtree propose allocating to the school department? Historically, Crabtree’s recommendations have not lined up with the requests of the School Committee.

For FY24, Crabtree, and later the FinCom and Town Meeting, opted to match the $31.6 million request. It is not clear if that pattern will continue in FY25, though Hashem said he had met with Crabtree in crafting his budget.