GRAFTON – A 5-year, $5 million override will appear before Grafton residents at Town Meeting and at the ballot box. In the event the override does not pass, Grafton is preparing a “reduction budget” which would take into account the town’s $1.4 million budget deficit.
To solve for the delta, Superintendent James Cummings went before the School Committee on April 7 with a plan to cut 11.5 full-time positions throughout Grafton Public Schools if the override effort fails. Cummings, clearly dismayed at the potential cuts, said a reduction budget would involve cutting whole programs across multiple grade levels.
“It’s hard to put into words how much I hate to discuss reductions. To me, it represents the dismantling of all the collaborative work [we’ve done] – all the work that’s been done over the 15-plus years on a shoestring budget to build us up to where we are today,” he said…