Boards Review Disputed School Utility Agreement

Select Board · Meeting of February 9, 2026

Swampscott's Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee met jointly to untangle two years of confusion over a utility funding agreement, taking no vote on the dispute itself. School official Cheryl Stella walked officials through a timeline stretching from October 2023 tri-chair meetings to Town Meeting's May 19, 2025 approval of $200,000 in free cash for the Stanley Elementary School's utility reserve line, after an earlier $32.199 million proposal had zeroed out the same utility costs in 2024. School Committee member Mary Ellen Fletcher disputed tri-chair minutes suggesting she backed stripping the $200,000 from the budget, saying "I did absolutely support it having 200,000 still in a utility." Officials agreed the 2024 memorandum, which used the word "offset" rather than "replace," never defined a funding baseline, calling the document "clear as mud." Going forward, officials said the school budget will fund utilities directly rather than through the disputed reserve mechanism.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of February 9, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.