LYNN — School committee members voted to approve the proposed FY26 budget during Thursday’s meeting.
This means eliminating six positions to hire seven clinicians for the Lynn Public School system.
The positions that were eliminated were a counselor for the City Arts and Sciences Academy (CASA) program, an assistant director at MLEDER, a program specialist for the early childhood education program, an assistant director for world languages in the curriculum department, one vacant position from the superintendent’s page, and a coordinator of private partnerships, according to School Business Administrator Kevin McHugh.
He said this saves $624,001.33 from the budget. This money will be reallocated to the seven clinician positions, which will use $612,836. The remaining $11,297 will be reallocated to fund substitute teachers.
Committee member Sean Reid said, “This is certainly not a perfect budget, and if it was up to me entirely, I think it would look a lot different.”
He added, “We’re still cutting too many people, especially in areas of high need, and I think some of these moves will lead to higher class sizes.”
“Having said that, I think there’s obviously a lot of pros that are so hard to ignore. Obviously, the teacher contract, the historical teacher contract, is a huge bright spot,” he said.
The budget passed.
The school committee voted to approve two teachers’ visas for the 2026 school year. The board also approved a vote to refer future visa applications to the policy subcommittee.
Mayor and Chairman of the School Committee Jared C. Nicholson said, “I want to thank all of the students and teachers and educators, and committee members who put a spotlight on this issue. We appreciate it.”
Members of the Lynn Teachers Union rallied outside Thursday’s School Committee meeting to celebrate reaching a contract agreement.
The school committee voted to approve the contract at Thursday’s School Committee meeting after a brief executive session. Board members voted with no opposition and one abstention to approve the contract.
For the first time in 40 years, the City and the Lynn Teachers Union have reached a contract agreement before the existing contract expired.
It took seven bargaining sessions over three months for the two sides to agree on the contract, which was ratified by the union on June 10.
President of the 1037 Lynn teachers union, Phil O’Connor, said, “I am so proud of this group. It is an amazing union.”
