LYNNFIELD — The school committee meeting saw an earlier-than-usual budget recommendation from Superintendent Thomas Geary, who has worked with school committee chair Kristen Elworthy and member Jenny Sheehan to decide on the details.
This comes three months before the Town Meeting, which will include a vote on the town’s budgets, but the committee felt it important to offer an advance presentation to keep the process transparent last Tuesday.
Currently, the district’s budgetary outlook is dependent on variables that are still up in the air, in particular, teacher contracts that are currently being negotiated, but the estimated financial increase after those talks are finished stands at 7.8%, which comes out to around $1.5 million, according to Geary.
“Jenny and I wanted to ensure, as the budget subcommittee and two people who hadn’t worked on a budget yet, that the conversations about the budget were happening early and often,” Elworthy said.
Geary began his presentation by outlining the goals he set for the district this year and how they relate to the school’s finances.
This includes curriculum reviews and, setting a positive culture which has no budgetary, and revamping the technology infrastructure of the district which has a moderate impact.
“I’ve said it many times: no year feels like a good budget year. But this year is different; it’s a very unique year,” Geary said. “So much is up in the air at this point, unlike typical years… my job and this committee’s job is to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of our needs.”
To that end, Geary laid out three pathways the committee wanted to take for the school’s budget, consisting of level-services, addressing short-term needs, and capital investments.
Level-services are the amount of money needed to keep everything the same and meet contractual obligations. It includes all finances that make up the 7.8% that the committee estimates will result from the new contracts.
In recent years, where union negotiations weren’t a factor, they increased from between 3% to 4% in order to cover necessary expenditures with salaries and special education requirements.
“We’ve treaded water budget-wise. What we’ve really done is play a shell game, shuffling resources between schools these past few years,” Geary said. “We’ve lost positions at all of our schools… every department has been hit to varying degrees.”
He went on to list examples of these lost positions, from core subjects like English, science, and foreign language to roles in lower-level classrooms and the central office.
This year, Geary feels like it’s reached the point where the committee needs to “advocate and communicate” and “be more open about our needs,” so this stagnation of resources changes to growth.
“I’ve heard frustrations from parents at each level, but particularly at the high school, particularly in recent years, about wanting more resources,” Sheehan said. “That’s where we all want to get to as well, so this is really meant to be the start of that conversation.”
Six holes that were listed as needing to be filled were an LHS digital learning/civics teacher, an LHS STEM teacher, an LMS computer science teacher, a shared elementary assistant principal, staffing to meet the committee’s classroom guidelines, and resources for the new elementary math curriculum.
For now, the cost of these needs isn’t being included in the committee’s budget recommendations without knowing the exact number of contractual costs.
Geary did, however, include a $650,000 capital improvement expenditure for seriously outdated technology at the schools, which will include replacing Chromebooks and implementing Wi-Fi access points in some schools.
The committee will need to work with Town Administrator Dick Dalton and other departments in Lynnfield to work towards a solution that will “continue to push forward and do what’s best for our students,” as said by member Jamie Hayman.
“We expect there will be budget updates probably every meeting from here on out as information comes through, ” Elworthy said. “This town has historically supported education, and I have full faith that if we, as a committee, set forth a strategic, long-term vision, then we will continue to receive that support.”
