On January 19, Fig City News received this open letter from a group of Newton parent-teacher organizations. The letter concludes with a call on the Mayor “to fully fund the Newton Public Schools and for all parties to bargain in good faith to end this strike immediately.”
On January 20, Mayor Fuller sent this open letter to the PTO leadership in reply their letter. In the letter, the Mayor says, “I know our schools need more ongoing and sustainable funding,” and describes how, after the override failed, she expanded funding for NPS with funds from Free Cash and from a one-year extension in the funding of pension liabilities.
The Mayor referred also to her proposals to apply funds from the Eversource settlement to NPS, which the City Council did not approve. In December, she and Superintendent Nolin and School Committee Chair Brezski successfully created a different plan for applying 70% of the Eversource settlement funds to NPS over multiple years, bringing the overall annual increase in the NPS budget to 5% for the next school year.
The Mayor also described how the NPS budget allocation has grown each year of her administration and what the constraints are in its growth.
Ed. Note: We revised this article, originally published on January 19, to include Mayor Fuller’s reply on January 20.