The Everett School Committee voted 9-0 on Thursday, April 16, to send a $145,395,399 fiscal 2027 budget to its April 28 public hearing and a May 4 vote, after a three-hour committee-of-the-whole session in which Superintendent William Hart warned that the relatively painless numbers in front of them would not repeat. “I’m raising a red flag today for a year from today,” Hart said. Mayor Robert Van Campen answered: “I’m raising, like, seven red flags right now, superintendent.”
The hole and the freeze
Assistant Superintendent of Finance Chris Barrett, marking his 50th birthday at the lectern, said October’s enrollment report of 6,908 students, down 339, set off daily meetings. “Back of an envelope, that’s almost $20,000 each student we lost,” he said. Chapter 70 aid grew by only $575,000. The gap ran to roughly $8 million to $9 million before the city froze the school chargeback at about $36 million instead of the nearly $41 million projected, a $5 million difference Barrett said saved about 48 positions. Even so, the budget carries a net reduction of 35 positions, mostly vacancies left unfilled, and curriculum lines were cut by using materials bought this year. “This has been the most challenging budget I think Everett Public Schools has had since 2007, since I started here,” Barrett said. The operating budget is $139,290,473 plus $6,104,926 in special education transportation paid by the city. The district projects another 205-student drop next fall, to 6,697.
What the committee asked
- Substitutes. Robin Babcock, a former substitute teacher, asked what happens when the two permanent subs per building are cut. Hart said a new contract lets the district pay daily subs more, drawing “an enormous amount of qualified former teachers, mostly retirees,” and Barrett said the daily-sub line rises to $150,000. “No building will go wanting,” he said.
- Translation. Barrett said the contracted interpretation service for committee meetings cost about $64,000 and was used once this year. Joanna Garren, who fought for it in her first term, said she hoped something remains for residents who are not comfortable in English. Hart said the district is testing a QR-code platform that translates 70 languages in real time and will reassign bilingual staff to meeting nights at no added cost. Chair Samantha Hurley said she had “many detailed conversations” before the line was zeroed out.
- Deans to assistant principals. Babcock asked why high school administrative salaries jumped. Barrett said the deans, who were in the teachers’ unit, became 12-month assistant principals. “High school is a 24/7 type job,” he said. Several school-based managerial positions at the high school were cut by 60 percent to offset it.
- Stepping Stones. Special education spending rises 18 percent, driven by a $1 million increase in an underfunded contract with Stepping Stones, which supplies 39 speech, physical and occupational therapy staff for students’ IEPs. Barrett said hiring them directly would cost millions more.
- BRYT. Millie Cardello asked about the Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition liaisons at the English, Keverian, Whittier and high schools, which were grant-funded this year. Barrett said the Brookline Center agreed to pay for them through at least December. “It’s a saving grace for a lot of students,” he said.
- Enrollment. Babcock asked whether a particular grade was shrinking. Hart said the surge of the past two years “wasn’t because of new births” and this year “is an anomaly because we don’t usually lose a huge swath of students.” Preschool registration is seeing a surge in three-year-olds. Vice Chair Marcony Almeida Barros was blunter: “The answer is Washington, D.C. That’s the situation that we are in.” He said the House budget released the day before adds $10 million for districts losing students.
- The van. Cardello said the district’s new white van has no step: “the driver actually had to catch me in his arms.” Barrett said the facilities director would look at it in the morning.
The mayor’s warning
Van Campen, three months into office, said cutting instructional spending “for me is nonnegotiable” and that the goal he shares with Hart is “an urban model of excellence and success.” But federal pandemic money must be spent by December 31, he said, and the city has “significant structural dysfunction in our financial systems” that he is fixing through new accounting and fiscal procedures. “Our financial footing is solid and strong,” he said, “probably more solid and more strong than most of the surrounding communities.” Hart said he cannot keep relying on the mayor or the Legislature: “We may not be in this place next year. This may not be the same story next year, and I’m preparing for that story.” Asked by Hurley whether any extracurricular or enrichment program would suffer, Hart said: “There’s no extracurricular cuts. There’s no cost to those extracurricular activities. All the clubs will continue to function.”
The budget adds two Chapter 74 programs at the high school, multimedia production and broadcast and public safety, a full-day pre-kindergarten, and Spanish and Portuguese dual-immersion kindergartens at the Keverian and Parlin run by existing staff. Hart said the district’s progress toward state improvement targets rose from 37 percent in 2023 to 61 percent in the latest report, and attendance is above 92 percent. Joe LaMonica was absent; Jeanne Cristiano attended remotely. The budget later went to the City Council, which held its school budget hearing May 19.
Previous School Committee meeting (April 7): Everett Schools Launch Their First Strategic Plan and Win a $329,000 Reading Grant as Hart Explains a 339-Student Enrollment Drop; Parlin Ambassadors Recite the Character
