The district will attempt to continue to lower this Circuit Breaker carryforward dependency in future years, as using them as a mechanism to balance its next year’s budget not only creates unnecessary financial risk for future years, but also a financial burden for the district as it tries to realize this necessary amount of carryforward. In order to realize this amount of carryforward into FY26, for instance we had to create a self-imposed budget freeze on our FY25 budget and not fully fund our work in this school year so we could fund the next. This long-standing process for NPS has been approved in prior administrations but is not favored nor recommended by the current superintendent. Managing finances in this way shortchanges children in the current FY25 budget to pay for subsequent years; this is an indicator of a budget that is overly restricted; so the community must know that year-over-year, the district self-imposes a spending freeze and therefore spends less than a 3.5% allocation to run its schools–and therein, we are not able to run the robust slate of programs and services children need and Newton deserves. It is preferred that the school budget be increased to meet the demands placed upon it vs. using one-time funding small amounts agreed to without a longer-term plan/agreement.
5. Continued rising expenses
Beyond our rising salary and benefit costs, we are also experiencing substantial increases in three areas due to a variety of reasons, including higher usage and inflationary pressure for FY26. This includes a $477,000 increase in Special Education Transportation due to annual contractual increases and increased van usage, a $700,000 increase in our gross Out-of- District Tuition due to expected placements and higher tuitions, and a $500,000 increase in for our third-party substitute vendor to cover staff absences. It should be known that these placements allow our young people to receive the most tailored and intensive educational program for their disabilities that are possible. If we cannot service young people in our system, we serve them in outplacements with transportation costs–but this is rare given the expertise extant in the Newton Schools. Newton is a lighthouse district for such programs and is a model for the nation.
Commitment to finding efficiencies and new revenue
We are committed to seeking new sources of funds through a variety of channels, as well as aggressively pursuing grant opportunities, and finding new operational efficiencies and revenue opportunities to aid our future budgets. Of course, the new challenges at the federal grant level mean that we may not have the same resources available to us as we have had in prior years. All budgets contain areas of risk and trade-offs and, as always, we will continue to closely monitor, assess, and report on our financial situation and work with our city partners to address the challenges that we face. Below is a list of incremental fees, efficiencies, and savings that NPS has undertaken to achieve a more sustainable budget over time. We will continue to recommend the district venture into more revenue generating areas in the future, such as exploring a school choice program, and increasing the number of tuition-bearing non-special education preschool classes offered to the community.
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