Wellesley Public Schools: Fiscal Year 2026 Budget
& Belonging, Commitment to Community, Value & Respect for Human Differences, and Caring and Cooperative Relationships. In the creation of the FY’26 budget, the Committee places priority on the following objectives: • Supporting the achievement of our system goals, including the WPS Strategic Plan with a focus on year 3. • Meeting legal mandates. • Offering appropriate general and special education programs and services and structuring the budget to insulate general education programs from the potential variability in special education expenses and revenue. • Supporting enrollment increases and/or decreases by maintaining class size guidelines and student options accordingly. • Providing competitive compensation and programming to support the recruitment, hiring, retention and • Diligently searching for cost savings that can be realized without adversely affecting delivery of the educational program, and broadly communicating these opportunities for resource streamlining and redeployment. • Reducing or eliminating fees charged to families for curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities, and identifying opportunities for students to access financial support. The Committee would like to see the following identified within the budget document: • Items related to Strategic Plan initiatives and aligning with the Student Opportunity Act (SOA). • District-level investments in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. development of quality professional and other instructional and administrative staff. • Providing adequate supplies and equipment to support the educational program. Available Revenue Based on Budget Guidelines: Based on the Select Board and School Committee Budget Guidelines, the available revenue is calculated as:
Model 1: Joint Guidance
FY’25 Annual Town Meeting Appropriation
$91,081,979 $2,960,164 $2,960,164
3.25% Increase
New Available Revenue
Model 2: Level Service The additional guidance is for a level service budget. Due to continued enrollment reductions and escalating salary costs, the level service amount is $3,006,372 or 3.30%, above the Select Board guidance of 3.25%. Model 3: Third Year of Strategic Priorities and Other Critical Needs The additional guidance is for a critical need and first year strategic investments. Model 3 is an additional increase of $178,359 or 0.20% for a total FY’26 Budget of 3.50%. The variance between the Select Board budget guideline of 3.25% and the current proposal of 3.50% is a difference of $224,566. As a point of comparison, we have included a historical view of the budget guidelines issued by the Select Board and School Committee.
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