On Thursday, January 16, the school committee met to again go over several items. The key item was the preliminary school budget for 2025-2026.
Several students, parents, and faculty members spoke concerning the budget as proposed. Afterwards, the revised preliminary school budget for 2025-2026 was presented. What follows are key differences from the budget as presented on Monday, January 6.
This stayed the same. These increases are in place to meet state requirements, and therefore are likely to remain. 
This remained the same. These increases are to help address understaffing in the elementary building and reading scores headed in the wrong direction.
This stayed the same. Two key components that will affect the budget going forward are the SESA salary negotiations and the eight administrators negotiating new contracts. For the administrator contracts, a COLA (cost of living adjustment) place holder is included in the budget, and the final budget will either move up or down based upon the final agreements. A finalized budget will not be available until we know the outcome of those negotiations. 
This slide looks the same, but an alternative proposal has reduced the cuts here. Football is still cut, as are everything else but the World Language Teacher. More on that in a bit. 
This is still the same. 
Here is the biggest difference. 0.4 (or two sections) of World Language has been retained which will allow the high school Spanish curriculum to remain at its current offerings.
These potential cuts have not been dismissed for now, but with a lower budget gap to close, they appear to be far less likely to happen. The administrators are exploring and recommending non-staff reductions to help close the budget gap. 
These were positions that were requested, but for now are not options.
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 3 @ 6 p.m. All are free to attend or view at the town’s YouTube channel.
