School Committee Chairman Praises Sagar

Seekonk School Committee Chair Robert Gerardi praised Select Board Chair Gary Sagar at the November 2 meeting.

Gerardi said Sagar had made a promise to improve communication with the School Department by starting the Quad Board meetings earlier in the year.

“That process has yielded more communication,” Gerardi said. ”I’m pleased to report as a result of the increased communication at the last Quad Board meeting, the Select Board voted for the Town Administrator to prepare his budget with a three percent increase in the school budget over last year. That is an improvement over what we’ve had in the past. I want to thank Mr. Sagar for his leadership in that and the whole Select Board for being more reasonable this year.”

The Select Board and the School Committee had struggled to agree on the FY’27 budget. The School Department had pushed for a 4.6 percent increase. In a 4-0 vote, the Select Board approved making cuts on the town side which would allow for a 3 percent increase in the school budget.

“We’re trying to be even and fair in how we reduce the budget,” Gerardi said last April. “We have increased class sizes to the limits, where it's detrimental if we go higher. We have reduced course offerings. I feel like these budgets have set us back four years.”

The Select Board began discussing the FY’28 budget with the School Committee last July. The boards have met several times since.