By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Superintendent Kristen Vogel unveiled the School Department’s preliminary $29,656,549 operating budget for fiscal year 2024 during the School Committee’s Feb. 28 meeting.
The proposed spending plan represents a 4 percent increase over FY23’s $28,515,911 operating budget. The School Department has also requested a $394,000 capital budget that will be used for technology expenses, facility upgrades and curriculum materials.
“Our goal for FY24 is to provide, at minimum, a fiscally responsible budget that provides level service while aligning with our District Strategy and school improvement areas,” said Vogel.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Tom Geary agreed.
“We want to maintain level services at a minimum,” said Geary. “We obviously want to move forward, but we don’t want to move backwards.”
Similar to FY23, Vogel did not request any new positions in the School Department’s spending plan for FY24.
Geary said the school budget maintains the district’s class size guidelines.
“Maintaining class size guidelines is always important to us,” said Geary. “Class sizes are being preserved, which is terrific.”
The School Department has budgeted $1,923,474 for special education out-of-district tuition and $354,486 for out-of-district transportation in FY24. The district budgeted $1,602,650 for special education out-of-district tuition and $385,009 for special education out-of-district transportation in FY23.
Geary recalled that the state’s Operational Services Division (OSD) sets tuition prices for more than 200 approved special education programs in 100 private schools. He said the OSD set a 14 percent increase for special education out-of-district tuition in FY24.
Vogel recalled that the School Department has traditionally budgeted a 2 percent increase for special education out-of-district tuition costs each fiscal year.
School Committee member Jamie Hayman said it’s “really important” for the community to understand the special education challenges the district is facing.
Vogel said school officials “anticipated” more students would become eligible for special education services during the pandemic.
“Children are struggling,” said Vogel. “Not only are we seeing academic struggles, we are seeing social-emotional struggles. We have seen an increase in the number of students who became eligible for special education. That is not unique to Lynnfield right now. It is very common in the commonwealth.”
Vogel recalled that the School Department expanded its in-district special education programming this year.
“Our out-of-district tuition costs have dropped a little bit, but our in-district special education costs have actually gone up,” said Vogel. “We are looking at all of our specialized programs because we always want to keep our students here.”
Gov. Maura Healey unveiled her first proposed state budget for FY24 on March 1. Under Healey’s spending proposal, the school system would receive $5,945,010 in Chapter 70 education aid.
Geary said he and the Administrative Leadership Team (ALT) reviewed each line item in the proposed FY24 budget.
“We looked at where things can be moved around to see where we can save and conserve,” said Geary.
Geary also said school officials reviewed each school’s schedule and classes to identify “efficiencies.”
Vogel said school officials had to make “a lot of shifts and changes to get to a budget that was workable for everybody.”
“We looked at everything, and we found efficiencies,” said Vogel. “That allows us to allocate resources so we don’t have to increase class sizes for our students.”
School Committee member Phil McQueen asked what were the efficiencies identified at the secondary schools.
Geary said school officials examined paraprofessionals’ schedules to “see how we can use each individual person efficiently and independently.”
Hayman said identifying efficiencies is “good business.”
“We should always be looking at efficiencies,” said Hayman. “We have 150 kids leave the district and 150 kids enter the district every year. They are going to have different needs, and we have to shift, adjust and find those efficiencies to be able to maximize the opportunities for all of our students.”
School Committee Vice Chair Stacy Dahlstedt said the district’s preliminary spending plan strikes “the right balance” between supporting students’ academic and social-emotional needs.
“That is essential to what we want to do,” said Dahlstedt. “We probably have several more years for students to catch up where they were pre-pandemic.”
While Dahlstedt said the preliminary FY24 budget funds the district’s needs, she recalled that the school board wants to expand the School Department’s health, STEM and foreign language programs. She said the district has been unable to expand those programs because of budgetary constraints.
“All of those will help our student population continue to grow,” said Dahlstedt.
Geary said the School Department is going to have to look into “revenue opportunities” moving forward.
“The town can only fund so many expenses,” said Geary. “Whether that is rentals or advertising, we have to take a serious look at those things.”
Vogel recalled that the town has not received any substantial new growth since MarketStreet Lynnfield opened. While she said the Toll Brothers development on upper Main Street will generate new growth, Vogel noted that the over-55 development will not be built in the next fiscal year.
“We have to start thinking differently and creatively,” said Vogel. “It’s on us to look at different revenue opportunities. We are actively doing that right now.”
In response to a question from Hayman, Vogel said she would have liked to hire a health teacher and an elementary school STEM teacher in FY24.
Geary said he and Vogel collaborated with Town Administrator Rob Dolan as part of the FY24 budget development process.
“They are really going the extra mile for us this year,” said Geary. “They recognize the post-pandemic needs that we have.”
Vogel concurred with Geary’s sentiment.
“The town is committing as much as they can to the schools, and we are very grateful for that,” said Vogel.
Geary said 85.3 percent of the School Department’s preliminary FY24 budget is for salaries. He noted that 6.4 percent of the spending plan will be spent on special education out-of-district tuition while 1.2 percent will be used for out-of-district transportation. He said 7.2 percent of the budget is spent on non-salary expenses.
While Geary said FY24 is a challenging budget year for the School Department, he said the proposed spending plan will meet students’ needs.
“We feel very comfortable and confident with how this budget will move us forward next year,” said Geary. “It takes academics and social-emotional needs for students into account. This proposal can move us forward in a fiscally responsible manner.”
Capital budget
The School Department has requested a $394,000 capital budget for FY24.
Similar to previous years, the School Department is requesting $250,000 for technology expenses.
“Our traditional technology request supports our one-to-one Chromebook model in grades 5 and 9,” Vogel wrote in the School Department’s budget book. “We also use some of this money to do needed upgrades of our technology infrastructure.”
The School Department has requested $144,000 for facility upgrades and a one-time curriculum materials purchase.
“This amount reflects our need to redo the gymnasium floors at both LHS and LMS and replace six basketball hoops at LHS,” Vogel wrote in the budget book. “We are also creating a classroom space within an existing classroom at LMS to meet the learning needs of a population of students. As we have implemented high-quality instructional literacy materials this year, we need to purchase the Wit and Wisdom geodes to further support the implementation of our educations of this curriculum in grades K-4.”
Geary said the gym floors at both secondary schools “need an update.”
“Huckleberry Hill has the best gym we have right now,” said Geary. “The gyms at the high school and middle school should be up to standard.”
In response to a question from Hayman, Vogel said Wit and Wisdom is an early literacy curriculum.
“There are about 64 different pieces of literature in each geode and they are grade-specific,” said Vogel.
Next steps
Vogel and Geary presented the FY24 school budget to the Select Board on Monday, taking place after deadline. The school budget will be presented to the Finance Committee on Monday, March 13.
The School Committee will be holding a public hearing on the proposed FY24 spending plan on Tuesday, March 14, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center.
Dahlstedt thanked Vogel, Geary and the entire ALT for developing the FY24 spending plan.
“It was an arduous process,” said Dahlstedt. “It was difficult to get to this point, and I want to thank you for your time.”
School Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg concurred with Dahlstedt’s viewpoint.
“Stacy and I served on the Budget Subcommittee this year, and we worked closely with Tom, Student Services Director Roberta Keane and Superintendent Vogel on each of these line items,” said Sjoberg. “It took a lot of work to get to today.”
Vogel said school officials “kept our eye on the prize” throughout the FY24 budget development process.
“That is our kids,” said Vogel.
