The May 8 joint meeting of the Newton City Council’s Programs & Services Committee and Finance Committee featured a debate and non-binding straw vote on approving the Mayor’s allocation to Newton Public Schools (NPS) for Fiscal Year 2026 (Fall 2025 – Spring 2026 school year). NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin and School Committee Chair Chris Brezski attended this joint City Council committee meeting as well.
The 35-page meeting report on the City Council website contains the details of the questions and answers between Councilors and Dr. Nolin, as well as the NPS budget presentation used by Dr. Nolin at prior School Committee meetings. Councilors asked questions regarding the interrelated timing and dollar-amount variables within the Massachusetts “circuit breaker” reimbursements for a district’s special education.
Dr. Nolin explained that these special education funds present a complication for the NPS budget because they are received during the academic year after the year in which services are rendered to students, and then NPS is further asked to “carryforward” large portions of these amounts to the next academic year. (This two-year lag is the maximum carryforward allowed under state law.) Thus the district may not receive the full benefit of these reimbursements until well after their accompanying expenditures.
Page 20 of the meeting report contains a table showing the spend-and-carryforward amounts for NPS, which indicates the need for $2.5 million of more “carryforward” than the FY 2025 NPS budget (the current academic year) had previously budgeted. Dr. Nolin stated this larger carryforward is presently being accumulated via an NPS spending freeze. This $2.5 million of assumed carryforward cash into FY 2026 is distinct from and additive to the $2.5 million known gap between the School Committee approved budget and the City’s current NPS allocation.
The increasing costs of special education services was a recurring underlying theme of the discussion, both within the circuit breaker discussion, and afterwards. Dr. Nolin cited “unfunded mandates” by the state, along with more complex student needs, transportation, and retirement obligations among the factors causing the current budget shortfall.
Both committees held straw votes on whether to recommend to the Council’s Committee of the Whole the current City allocation to NPS, and both Committees voted No, and then added Resolutions that requested Mayor Fuller to increase the City’s NPS allocation for FY 2026. These subsequent resolutions were approved by both committees.
NewTV provides a video of the meeting.
