At its March 19 meeting, the School Committee had planned to discuss a potential override as well as options to absorb an additional $1.5 million in school budget cuts for the 2027 fiscal year.
Instead, the committee decided to postpone the discussion of specific plans until they are certain of the accuracy of the size of the budget cut the schools need to absorb.
“I don’t want to discuss too much without knowing what the number is, but I think people in the community want to know what we’re planning, because they’re all seemingly willing to support it,” committee member Henry Gwazda said.
Slides that Superintendent John Robidoux had planned to present showed “override needs” of $1.5 million in 2027 to make up for the budget cut. If the $1.5 million override were to pass, the slides show about $4 million in override needs in FY 2028, and about $4.3 million in FY 2029, though those numbers are premised on an override passing in the prior fiscal year.
Robidoux’s slides also outlined several options for absorbing the cuts, including:
- Prepaying out-of-district tuition to reduce that line in the proposed budget by $1.5 million.
- Returning up to $1.5 million from the school department’s 2026 fiscal year general fund to help cover the 2027 fiscal year
- Cutting an additional 20 to 30 full-time-equivalent employees beyond the 15 already proposed in the budget.
- Implementing school choice to supplement the schools’ revenue.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Mike Pfifferling said that these plans and calculations were all based on the need to cut $1.5 million, a figure the committee was not confident was accurate. The committee decided to hold off on discussing plans to absorb the cut and overrides until they are certain and comfortable with the number…