3. Staff Attrition ($450K Savings) The District will save approximately $450K through retirements and resignations. This was accounted for in the FY26 budget and allowed for the preservation of additional staff. 4. Vacancy Factor ($75K Increase) This is a budgetary line that historically reflected anticipated savings from unpaid leaves of absence during a school year. In recent years, the historical trend in savings has not materialized and has created liabilities in our operating budget during the school year. The District has allocated modest budget allocations each year toward eliminating this budget line.
Balancing the Budget The District used four primary strategies to develop the proposed budget:
1. Carefully manage class sizes We closely examined class sizes in all grades and departments and programmed class sizes to the school committee guidelines. This resulted in us proposing a reduction of 8 general educators at the junior and senior high schools. While there were no proposed reductions to elementary classroom teachers, we are not recommending an additional section of Kindergarten despite a projected increase of approximately 30 students. The impact of these reductions places all elementary grades within guidelines and results in junior high school core classes of approximately 24 students and high school average class sizes of between 22-23 students depending on the department. There is more variance in class sizes from the average in high school schedules due to the variety of course levels offered. 2. Implement recommendations of the Elementary Budget Task Force Based on recommendations of the Elementary Budget Task Force, the district is proposing a reduction in elementary general education assistants by approximately 25%. The proposal maintains full-time Kindergarten assistants and provides some additional part-time assistant hours to be allocated by each school in addition to the time required for lunch and recess coverage. Our recent Multilingual Program Review revealed a need for additional multilingual teachers to meet the state’s minimum recommended minutes for English Language Learners. This need is unmet in the Preliminary Budget Proposal. Though not a direct budgetary impact, we are working with school administrators to more closely align elementary schedules across schools for more efficient scheduling of multilingual services. A shared schedule would also offer future opportunities to maximize the efficient use of shared staff in other program areas including intervention services, special education, and specials (art, music, PE). 3. Closely examine scheduling practices to improve supports for multilingual and special education students 4. Examine Tier 2 & 3 intervention group sizes and scheduling to serve as many students as possible While the school committee directed administration to prioritize tiered supports for students, we were unable to fully fund the supports we currently have available. If we are unable to restore any of these proposed reductions during the budget process, we will need to closely examine intervention group sizes and scheduling practices to serve as many students as possible within our available resources,
To develop engaged, well-balanced learners through collaborative, caring relationships. WELLNESS • EQUITY • ENGAGEMENT
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