By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — The School Committee voted to pass two versions of its FY25 budget on Monday night to present the voters with a choice of a balanced budget and one that would require an override of Proposition 2 1/2 in order to provide level services to students in the 2024-25 school year.

Presenting two budgets to the voters at the June 10 Annual Town Meeting is necessary because of the requirement that an approved FY25 budget is in place as the start of the new Fiscal Year on July 1, 2024, per state law.

An override of Proposition 2 1/2 is a two-step process requiring both the approval of voters at Town Meeting and at the ballot box. By approving two budgets to be presented for consideration by the voters, if one or the other measure failed the town would still have a non-override budget in place.

School administrators have stressed that due to contractual agreements, enrollment increases and inflation across the board, the passage of the budget that is within the limits of Prop. 2 1/2 would necessitate hefty cutbacks, possible layoffs/letting positions go unfilled, increasing fees to families and/or increases in classroom sizes, among other changes.

The Select Board is not slated to vote on its recommendations for the municipal side of the ledger until its next meeting on Monday, May 6. At that meeting a date of an override vote will also be decided by the Select Board because the town is required to provide the Town Clerk’s Office with a minimum of 35 days’ advance notice of any special election so that preparations can be made to have workers available at the polls, and the election (if needed) can be adequately advertised to the public.

Approved motion

The motion approved by the School Committee was to “adopt the following FY25 School Operating Budgets to both be considered at the annual Town Meeting on June 10. First, a balanced non-override budget of $38,772,128; which represents an increase of 3.9% or $1,452,533 over FY24 and a second budget that would require an override of $40,208,446 which represents an increase of 7.7% or $2,888,851 over FY24.”

After press time, a public budget webinar was held Wednesday night, April 24 for members of the public to ask any questions about either the proposed school or municipal budgets. A second in-person meeting will be held featuring a Q&A with the public on Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Distance Learning Lab at NRHS.

[The Select Board will also hold public hearing on the entire town meeting warrant on a meeting date to be advertised a couple of weeks prior to the June 10 Town Meeting. This hearing would be accessible both in-person and virually.]

The reductions

The School Department’s non-override balanced budget of $38,772,128 is comprised of $32,105,216 in salaries and $6,666,912 in expenses, which is 3.9% higher than the current year’s budget. It would have the effect of reducing 15.2 full time equivalent (FTE) positions by not funding the need for three new elementary teachers due to increasing enrollments at that level ($240,000); a reduction of 6.0 Middle and High School Classroom and SPED teachers ($480,000); reduction of 0.5 nursing services ($40,000) and 0.5 technology staffing and support ($32,500); reduction of 1.2 elementary tutors ($56,800); reduction of 1.0 custodian ($51,000); reduction of $20,000 in athletic coaching staff; reduction of 3.0 general classroom kindergarten support ($105,000); plus a reduction of school and district expenses ($35,207); SPED transportation increases ($40,000); shifting $60,000 of utilities and custodial cleaning costs to the Food Services Revolving Account and an increase in busing user fees to families ($500/800) for a total of $40,000. These proposed reductions would total $1.2M.

The override budget

The revised budget proposal funded by an override would provide $33,262,727 for salaries and $6,945,719 for expenses for a total budget of $40,208,446 or an increase of 7.7% over FY24. Under this scenario it adds 2.4 FTE grade-level positions to maintain existing student to teacher ratios due to enrollment increases. It also adds a 0.6 FTE School Adjustment Counselor and a 1.0 Academic Interventionist, which the administration states are both “high priority” items in the district’s strategic plan. It also includes a plan to continue reducing the full day kindergarten tuition rate from $2,500 in FY25 to $1,500 in FY25.

The school department also identifies priorities of a “restoration list” if additional funds are identified from grants or increases in Ch. 70 state aid, if known by the end of the current school year. This list totals $496,800 and would fund three elementary classroom teachers, two secondary classroom teachers, school nursing services (0.5) and elementary academic support tutors (1.2).