In an e-newsletter sent on Sunday December 17, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced that she had indicated commitment for “70% of $26 million” in property tax Overlay Surplus funds to supplement the existing Newton Public Schools (NPS) budget.
Background: Since the March 2023 operating override vote was not approved and the School Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2024 (July 2023 – June 2024) NPS Budget shortly thereafter, the City has identified approximately $55 million of surplus cash. In August, Mayor Fuller proposed contributing $26 million of this amount to a newly created Operations Booster Stabilization Fund, and using those funds to offset some of the planned City contributions to its worker retirement programs. This would have freed City cash for future contributions to the NPS budget of $462,000 in FY 2025, increasing to $5.485 million in FY2032. However, in October the City Council, whose approval is required for increases to the City budget, rejected this Stabilization Fund plan.
Following this rejection, during the October 23 School Committee meeting the members, including the Mayor, voted 9-0 to work toward continued solutions in partnership with the City Council to provide more funding to NPS. During November, NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin released a comprehensive Entry Plan that focused on several areas within NPS needing additional funding, and the City Council debated but postponed a vote on a Debt Service Stabilization Fund that would free City cash for additional NPS contributions.
The Mayor’s December 17 announcement appears to be a significant increase in funding commitment from the prior Booster Stabilization Fund proposal, which primarily utilized Overlay Surplus funds to fund City worker retirement programs. Mayor Fuller attached to her email a concurrent statement by Superintendent Nolin reiterating specific NPS funding needs. However, the exact mechanisms by which the implied $18.2 million of additional funding will be utilized for NPS, “in a way that will not result in fiscal hardship when these unusual, one-time funds are used up” (per the Mayor’s language) were not disclosed as of this writing.
City Council President Susan Albright told Fig City News, “The Mayor called this group and a few others this weekend to let us know about the new plan. She has been trying to find a mechanism amenable to all that would get additional funds to the schools. Let’s hope that this is the way forward to get needed resources to the schools.”
The coming week was already scheduled to be active with regard to NPS negotiations with the Newton Teachers Association (NTA), with NTA President Mike Zilles having previously scheduled a 4:15PM press conference on Monday, December 18, at the NPS Education Center — on the same day as a scheduled mediation session between the district and NTA, as well as a planned School Committee meeting.