LYNNFIELD — The School Budget Subcommittee and the Town are negotiating the FY27 school budget increase. The Schools originally recommended a 4.9% increase, which the Select Board reduced to 3.7% at its most recent meeting.
Due to Massachusetts’ Prop 2 1/2, the Town of Lynnfield was forced to propose an override last year, which it had not done since 2011. Within that override, which passed, the School Committee had an 11% increase in its budget.
“We stated to the town that we would need 4% moving forward to maintain our services,” School Committee Chair Kristen Elworthy said.
The services Elworthy noted are mostly salaries, making up 80% of the budget. Additionally, special education accounts for 12% of the budget. Elworthy said neither of those factors can change.
Unfortunately, due to conflict in other departments, the Select Board presented a budget increase of 3.7%.
Elworthy noted that it’s important to keep in mind the Town’s efficiency this budget process, as the timeline has been moved up considerably. She added that the 3.7% is only a reflection of being prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Superintendent of Schools Tom Geary said Lynnfield is finding itself in uncharted territory.
“Usually when we do budget, there’s more knowledge,” Geary said. “Moving it up just puts in a lot more variables.”
In the subcommittee’s initial recommendations, there was a proposal for the creation of a new position as a digital literacy computer science teacher at Lynnfield Middle School. Although it was deemed important, the subcommittee put that request on hold to be able to negotiate the overall budget increase.
However, on a more positive note, Lynnfield has both historically and currently been able to place special needs students in private schools when those settings are better suited to meet their needs, with the associated costs fully covered. More recently, changes in the circumstances of certain students have led to adjustments in the subcommittee’s projected savings.
In addition to these changes and the subcommittee’s standard savings, the subcommittee feels comfortable negotiating its budget down to a 4.3% increase. These numbers are subject to change.
