Everett Public Schools asked the City Council’s budget committee Tuesday, May 19 to approve a $145,395,399 budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, a plan built around 339 fewer students, a net reduction of 35 staff positions and almost no growth in state aid. The committee recommended it as presented.
The total has two parts: a $139,290,473 operating budget and $6,104,926 for special education transportation, which the city funds separately and which does not count toward the state’s net school spending requirement.
The enrollment problem
Superintendent William Hart said the district reported 6,908 students to the state on October 1, down 339 from the year before. Because Chapter 70 aid is calculated per pupil, the state’s contribution grew by only $575,000 this year after growing $8.8 million last year. Hart put the lost income at about $6 million. Asked by Councilor Guerline Alcy Jabouin whether immigration enforcement explains the drop, Hart said it is “certainly a key indicator, yes.”
The gap was closed in large part by Mayor Robert Van Campen’s decision to freeze the city’s chargeback to the schools at $36 million. Assistant Superintendent for Finance Chris Barrett said the prior memorandum of understanding would have pushed that figure past $40 million, and the freeze saved close to $5 million, “which we immediately reinvested” to keep about 50 educators who would otherwise have been cut. Even so, the budget carries 35 fewer positions than this year. Hart said no teacher is being laid off for lack of money; the non-renewal notices that go out by June 15 every year are about performance and need. The district held one job fair, suspended the second, and has not extended an offer to anyone from it. “It’s not a freeze, I’m in suspense, quite frankly,” he said.
Special education costs rose about $2 million. Curriculum and supply lines were cut by about $1.3 million by carrying over multi-year materials bought in prior years, a saving Barrett said cannot be repeated in fiscal 2028. Teachers get a 3 percent raise plus step increases under their contract; paraprofessionals, who were brought up to a higher base two years ago, get 6 percent a year. The district has 1,280 employees, 605 of them teachers and 140 paraprofessionals.
What is new in the fall
- The city’s first full-day pre-kindergarten, at the Adams School and the Webster Extension in the old high school, with a half-day option kept for families who want it. Hart said it requires at most one additional paraprofessional.
- Dual-immersion programs in Spanish at the Keverian School and Portuguese at the Parlin School.
- Two new Chapter 74 vocational programs at Everett High, multimedia production and broadcast and public safety, bringing the total to 10.
- The district’s first strategic plan, now being written with the mayor and Councilor Stephanie Martins taking part.
Hart said the gains are showing: the state’s progress-toward-improvement score rose from 37 percent in 2023 to 61 percent, attendance climbed from 88 percent in 2022 to above 92 percent, the percussion ensemble finished among the top 15 in the country, and 575 seniors will graduate at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The district has taken in more than $8.2 million in grants this year.
Space
Asked how the council can help, Hart repeated his request for the old Everett High School to house the seventh and eighth grades now spread across five K-8 buildings, which he said would free 12 or 13 classrooms for art, music and therapy. Today, he said, those services happen “in hallways, under staircases, in spaces that you and I probably would never think should be a learning space in a building.” Councilor Holly Garcia, a former Everett attendance officer, said tutoring in a hallway is the norm in other districts too.
Hart closed with a warning. “Next year is not going to be any easier,” he said. “It just isn’t.” The full budget goes to the council for a vote in June.
