School Committee approves updated FY25 budget

WESTFORD — The School Committee voted to approve a new budget request ahead of Annual Town Meeting — with approximately $800,000 in additional reductions.

The committee voted 4-1 to support the budget during a Feb. 26 meeting. Member Mingquan Zheng cast the dissenting vote. Members Sean Kelly and Marisol Garcia were not present.

Current reductions, offsets

The new proposal falls approximately $800,000 shy of the initial needs-based budget approved by the committee in January. 

The initial needs-based budget already included approximately $830,000 in reductions and approximately $230,000 in offsets, which would have eliminated in-district transportation for special education students and cut several positions across Westford Public Schools.

“Sometimes people will say ‘If it wasn’t in your needs-based budget then those aren’t really cuts’ but I want to remind you, again, that’s 27 people who have jobs that have jobs who will not have jobs, that is a cut,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christopher Chew told the committee. 

“Whether it’s because of an enrollment issue or not, it’s a very real reduction that I think is important for people to understand,” he added. 

This new budget retains several additions in the needs-based budget, including $227,449 to support a special-education teacher, two job coaches and administrative support for a postgraduate program at Westford Academy, as well as $66,897 for an additional ESL teacher. 

The new budget includes several additional offsets, including:

• $114,997 from comp reserve, which could impact flexibility with negotiations with nonunion personnel. 
• $100,000 from reductions in the transportation contract, which remains in negotiation. 
• $50,000 from the integrated preschool revolving fund, which would cover some costs associated with midday bus service. $257,200 is offset from this account in FY25. 
• $15,000 from the music fee revolving fund to offset music teacher salaries. $150,000 is offset from this account in FY25. 
• $10,000 to offset the facility budget from the building usage revolving fund. $30,000 is offset from this account in FY25. 

Net reductions, offsets and additions total $1.56 million based on enrollment needs and additional reductions requested by the Select Board and Finance Committee.

A ‘compromise’ budget

“[This is] the balance that gets us to the target that the Select Board has asked us to reach,” he said. 

Kindergarten through fifth-grade curriculum coordinators for STEM and humanities will also be restructured. Additionally, the Director of Equity, Curriculum and Instruction position, which was filled for the first time less than two years ago, will be eliminated. 

“While those are not recommendations I make lightly, they are recommendations that existed in our no-override budget. As we’ve been talking about developing this compromise budget, those are recommendations that have the least potential impact directly on students,” he said.

He added, “It’s still not a good idea, I want to be clear about that. But based on what we’ve been asked to do that would be my recommendation.” 

This budget will have similar impacts in FY25 regardless of whether the town supports a $6 million override or a $6.8 million override. However, according to Chew, the impact may vary in FY26 and beyond.

“The initial impacts are similar, it’s FY26 and FY27 that change,” Chew said. “It’s the idea that in their [Select Board] discussion it makes a difference as to what is used in the future.”

Food service staff raise questions 

Additionally, a $157,291 offset from the food service account, which would cover indirect costs for head custodians’ salaries, drew concerns from over a dozen food service staff in attendance.

“That money has taken us over 10 years to accrue,” Heather Urban, Cafeteria Manager at Nabnasset Elementary School said. “We feel like food services needs aren’t being taken [care of] because [soon we] will need equipment, to hire new people and we’re going into contract negotiations this year too so we’d like that money for salaries and increases.”

She added, “We’re just a little confused on the moving of food service money.” 

Food service staff, whose contract is up for negotiation later this year, are paid between $16.16 an hour and $17.39 an hour. Substitutes, meanwhile, are paid $15 an hour. 

“It’s very hard for us to get a person to come in to want to work for us because they can go elsewhere,” Maggie Carlson, Cafe Manager at Miller Elementary School said. “And yet we still work short-staffed and we still produce the same amount of product.”

The account has approximately $1.4 million in the account as of Dec. 31, 2023. 

“Currently, we have four months of reserve in our food service account,” Chew said. “It’s built up significantly with the support of the universal school lunch program.” 

Chew says this account is “built up significantly” with support from the state’s universal school meals program. Chew says the district currently has four months of operating reserves in its account. 

“This additional increase doesn’t compromise our ability to still have the reserve and for us to be able to still responsibly meet the needs of the food service staff in making sure we’re still able to pay competitive wages,” he said.   

He later added, “It was never intended to be received or communicated as taking from somebody and giving to someone else.”