Bringing to a head prior budget discussions, on April 2 the School Committee approved by a 6-3 vote the “Level Services Plus” version of the FY26 budget for Newton Public Schools (NPS), even though this budget exceeds the allocation from the City by $2-3 million. NPS leaders will present this budget to City Council committees on April 17.
Superintendent Anna Nolin’s Level Service Plus budget totals $296.4 million — and does not include the possible restoration of Kindergarten aides nor contingencies for the risk of NPS needing to self-fund activities that are presently paid by federal Title I grants. These items would increase the budget by $1.2 million.
Narrowing the gap
The prior Committee meeting, on March 24, had ended with a larger gap of $3.7 to $4.5 million between the Level Service Plus budget and the $293.0 million allocated by the Mayor for NPS in the FY2026 City budget. NPS and the City had reached “tentative agreement,” however, on the City providing an additional $1.2 million of funding out of its free cash balance. Additionally, the total City allocated amounts include $4.2 million of Education Stabilization Funds (ESF) that are allocated by the Mayor and require a two-thirds City Council approval to disburse. (The City’s Chief Financial Officer, Maureen Lemieux, verified this for Fig City News.)
The Mayor also announced at the April 2 meeting that the City would contribute an additional $1.3 million for an unexpected increase in NPS-related healthcare insurance expenses, plus $2.5 million for facilities improvements, but these amounts would fall outside the NPS budgeting process. These proposed appropriations, plus the additional $1.2 million directly toward the NPS budget, equal $5 million of City “free cash” to NPS above the City’s $293 million allocation (inclusive of ESF funds).
Next steps
Following the approval vote, the budget debate moved out to the community and the City Council, which will now deliberate the NPS allocation within its consideration of the overall City budget. The day after the vote, the district emailed all NPS families with news of the vote, the district’s budget “toolkit” for the public, and notice of a second community meeting at Brown Middle School that evening, following a similar meeting on Thursday, March 27. The Newton Teachers Association expressed its support for the School Committee’s vote, and the PTO Council (PTOC) held meetings both privately with City Council President Marc Laredo on April 8 as well as an open meeting with other members of the City Council on April 10. The PTOC has advised individual school PTOs to encourage their membership to advocate for additional City funding to close the remaining gap.
The next official meeting regarding the budget will occur on Thursday, April 17 at the City Council where Superintendent Anna Nolin and School Committee Chair Chris Brezski (Ward 2) will present their approved budget to the Council’s Finance and Programs & Services Committees. The meeting is open to the public. While the City Council does not approve the discrete NPS budget, the comments of these committees, along with a possible straw vote, on April 17 may indicate the Council’s stance regarding the overall City budget inclusive of NPS.
Budget and Free Cash authority
Newton has a “strong mayor” form of local government, with the power to set municipal department budgets originating by the Mayor. The City Council has the authority only to either accept or reduce the Mayor’s proposed City budget, not increase it. Even a failure of the Council to approve the Mayor’s budget may be of limited consequence; in 2022 Mayor Fuller implemented the City’s FY 2023 budget (beginning July 2022) despite the Council’s ‘No’ vote earlier that spring. However, that 2023 event occurred prior to the establishment of the ESF, a source of funding for the NPS budget as noted above. Following the NPS budget presentation to Council committees on April 17, Mayor Fuller will give her annual budget address to the City Council on Tuesday, April 22.
The City Council must approve specific appropriations of the City’s free cash, after these allocations are proposed by the Mayor. The timing of this process is nuanced: the City ends each fiscal year on June 30 with an accumulation of unspent funds — much of which is a planned amount due to state recommendations for every municipality to hold at least a minimum cash reserve. This amount of “free” cash for the concluded fiscal year is then certified by the state’s Department of Revenue the following September or October. The $5 million of additional free cash cited above will come from FY 2024 certified free cash, which was generated in the fiscal year ending June 2024 and certified in autumn 2024. Newton generated $23.6 million in free cash from its FY 2024 operations, of which approximately $13 million remained prior to the $5 million NPS allocation described above.
Alongside the determination of the Mayor to propose this appropriation of certified free cash generated in FY 2024, followed by the City Council’s decision to approve it, the City has gained visibility throughout the current year on how much excess cash it will accumulate as a result of FY 2025’s City collections less actual expenses. City Controller Stephen Curly estimates the City may end FY 2025 with $18-19 million of revenues over expenses for this year (below FY 2024’s $23.6 million “profit”). Municipalities in Massachusetts vary widely by how much total free cash they maintain, although the state recommends a minimum level of 5% of the operating budget. This implies a minimum of $26 million total free cash based on the FY 2025 City budget, which the City would just clear if it did not spend any more FY 2024 certified free cash and FY 2025 forecasts are accurate. Complicating further the fundamental question of whether the City should be spending free cash, the $22 million of existing funds in the ESF may or may not be considered part of the City’s cash reserves depending on one’s perspective.
Budget approved during April 2nd meeting
Superintendent Nolin began the April 2 meeting by updating the Committee on the current state of the budgeting talks with City Hall. Dr. Nolin summarized the current gap between NPS and the City, and then described meetings with the City over the prior several days, since the previous March 24 School Committee meeting. The City’s $1.2 million in incremental funding from free cash is intended to pay for “one time” expenses, such as IT equipment replacement, “Thrive” professional development, science equipment, and certain building maintenance. Dr. Nolin cautioned, however, that while the specific FY 2026 purchases under the categories may be one-time, different items under the same categories will occur in future years, so a similar funding gap will be present in FY 2027 and beyond.
Following inclusion of these funded one-time expenses, Dr. Nolin reiterated the reductions that would further be required if NPS had to fit its FY 2026 budget within the City’s allocation. These included additional layoffs of 5 elementary school teachers (in addition to the 10 contemplated in the “Level Service Plus” budget), significant reductions in student support-related staff such as interventionists, aides, and digital learning coaches, and various non-personnel cuts like after-hours busing, overnight field trips, management software, and MCAS support.
Mayor Fuller then updated the Committee regarding the $5 million of additional funds cited above, including the increase in healthcare expense, which members of the Committee stated they were not aware of until that moment. According to Mayor Fuller’s comments, these increased cost estimates for FY 2026 were a result of factoring in actual healthcare expenses being incurred throughout the current year. Ms Lemieux later clarified to Fig City News:
The City is self-insured. The City pays the actual cost of claims plus an administrative fee to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Each year we develop “working rates.” City and employees share in the cost of these rates. The rates are expected to cover the total cost of the health insurance program. The increase is based on medical trend rates and is necessary in order to cover the cost of the program. This is not funding to pay for last year’s expenses or a long-term trust. It is the amount needed to cover the cost of our healthcare program for the coming fiscal year, FY2026.
Following the Mayor’s updates, the Committee continued debate. While there was no disagreement among the School Committee members over their desire to avoid these reductions, the ensuing debate centered over the ability of the School Committee to approve a budget that included an unfunded portion. Mr. Brezski stated that the Committee’s outside counsel was still reviewing the possible scenarios that may unfold after such an approval. (See Mr. Brezski’s op-ed in Fig City News explaining his personal view of the NPS budget situation.)
Newly sworn-in Committee Member Alicia Piedalue (Ward 7) introduced the motion to approve the budget, which was seconded by Emily Prenner (Ward 5). The final 6-3 vote represented a victory for Mr. Brezski, who has been advocating for approving the NPS “Level Service Plus” budget in the past several Committee budget meetings. The dissenting members were Tamika Olszewski (Ward 4), Paul Levy (Ward 6), and Mayor Fuller (ex-officio).
Mayor Fuller’s ‘No’ vote was expected, since a ‘Yes’ vote by her would have contradicted her office’s own allocation to NPS. The Mayor has consistently cited these reasons for not increasing the City’s allocation to match the School Committee’s approved budget:
- The budget needs of other City departments,
- The large increase of over $10 million in the City’s NPS allocation relative to FY 2024, and
- Future economic uncertainty requiring budget caution today in order to avoid potentially more painful cuts in the future.
Of the two School Committee members who voted No, Mr. Levy cited the potential damage to NPS morale if the City did not authorize more funding, resulting in further reductions needed later in the process, as well as his belief the School Committee did not have the authority to set its own appropriation. Ms. Olszewski likened the setting of an NPS budget above the City’s allocation to “a game of chicken” that the School Committee would lose.
See NewTV’s video of the April 2 meeting.
April 14th Meeting
The subsequent April 14 regularly scheduled School Committee meeting lasted less than 45 minutes, during which the Superintendent and Committee discussed substantive but noncontroversial topics. The agenda included:
- The annual requirement to hold a public hearing for School Choice (Dr. Nolin did not recommend NPS participate in the program next school year primarily due to the classroom logistical challenges caused by budget uncertainty.),
- The required annual Superintendent performance evaluation by the School Committee, and
- Finalizing the last day of this school year as Monday, June 23.
Ms. Olszewski (Ward 4) requested an update from Mr. Brezski (Chair, Ward 2) regarding the School Committee’s outside legal counsel opining on possible budget scenarios following the April 2 vote, and Mr. Brezski stated that he was still waiting for counsel’s analysis. Ms. Olszewski then directed the same question to Mayor Fuller, who replied, “Let’s see …what the lawyers for the School Committee come up with.”
