Superintendent of Schools Dr. Josh Vadala presented the first draft of his fiscal year 2025 school budget to the Peabody School Committee at a recent meeting, proposing a 6% increase.

Vadala stressed that FY25 will be the first budget since 2020 that will not include COVID-19 relief funds. 

The increase would be from $93,099,671 in FY24 to $98,698,400 in FY25. Around $36 million of the $98 million would come from state aid, while around $61 million would come from municipal contributions. 

“We know that this is a big number and we will likely be reducing this number,” Vadala said. “Our goal would be to find reductions that are ‘not human’, not staff, and we tend to try to cut stuff before we cut people.”

According to Vadala, the increase is driven by three main expenses: a 9.5% increase in health-insurance costs, escalating costs for transportation, and special education. There will also be a reduction in administrators’ salaries for FY25. 

FY25 will also be the first year since 2020 in which there will be no Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that aimed to help school districts across the country with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the expiration of ESSER funds, Vadala said the district still hopes to maintain what it achieved with the funds throughout the past four years, including technology acquired for the pandemic, such as Chromebooks. 

The next step is for the district to work collaboratively with the committee to create a final budget, with Mayor Ted Bettencourt approving its amount. In May, the School Committee will vote on the appropriate budget at a public budget hearing.