By NEIL ZOLOT

NORTH READING — The School Committee had a quick morning meeting on June 27 to finalize student user fees, based on information presented at their meeting the previous week. Proposals on June 17 time were subject to the outcome of the override vote, which failed.

The override question was approved at a Special Town Meeting Monday, June 10 by a vote of 555-181, but was defeated in the Special Election on Tuesday, June 18 by a vote of 2,438 to 1,807. It needed to be successful at both Town Meeting and the ballot box to be enacted

Had the $10M general override succeeded, the total earmarked for School Department expenses in Fiscal Year 2025 was $1,436,318 of a proposed $40,208,446 override budget.

Since it failed, the School Department must make cuts to close that gap and pare expenses to the limits of the $38,772,128 non-override budget approved at Town Meeting.

“Part of the plan to balance the budget if an override failed was an increased bus fees, so we had to adjust that fee to $500 for an individual rider and $800 for a family,” School Committee Chairman Scott Buckley explained.

“We also adjusted the athletic fees because we were in a position where the fees were not enough to support expenses (that) they were supposed to cover and we would have been in a situation where we would have been eating into the small reserve,” Buckley added.

“Some positions are also being lost and we can update more on positions in future meetings, but the primary purpose of the mid-week meeting was to adjust fees because they will begin to be collected over the summer,” Buckley explained.

“We made some adjustments to the bus and athletic fees,” Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly confirmed, also referring to an athletic user fee cap of $1,300 and a universal activity user fee cap of $1,800, both approved by the School Committee.

15 positions cut

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Michael Connelly confirmed that 15 positions, calculated at $1,005,300 of the $1,436,318 FY24 budget gap between the non-override budget and the override budget were cut after the override failed at the ballot box. These cuts included $480,000 for six Middle School and High School regular and special education teachers, $240,000 for three elementary school teachers, and $105,000 for three kindergarten paraprofessional positions.

Summer duty

Some people wonder what a school Superintendent and his staff and School Committee members do during the summer months when school is out and School Committee meetings are less frequent.

“The summer is actually quite a productive time in the central office,” Daly reported. “There is a lot of work to be done to close out one fiscal year and prepare for the next. We also spend time hiring, creating schedules, cleaning and improving facilities, writing grants and engaging in professional development and our leadership retreat. We also run several summer academies for students and host various camps and programs at our schools.”

“It’s a very busy time for us in the business office,” Connelly added. “We work a full schedule. Nothing slows down. If anything, it heats up. We close one fiscal year and begin a new one and have to submit end of the year reports required by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”

Connelly also said work starts on the budget and capital plan for the next fiscal year, which would be FY26, before the end of the calendar year.

“We do have to set plans for next year, so in August the meetings will focus on planning,” Buckley said from the perspective of a School Committee member. “When COVID happened we had more meetings because there was much more planning that needed to be done. In some years if contracts are not settled there may be meetings to discuss negotiations, but that’s not the case this summer.”

The next two School Committee meetings are scheduled for Monday, July 22 and Monday, August 26.