How Woburn schools make budget, staffing and curriculum decisions — and an example: a new assistant principal

Woburn’s school committee outlined how the district builds and approves its budget, how curriculum changes are piloted before adoption, and how staffing needs are incorporated — citing the addition of an assistant principal at the high school as a recent example.

“The director of finance, Mr. Dizzio, will start working with the finance subcommittee with Dr. Crowley, and they'll start preparing the budget...,” Jesse Wetzel, a Woburn Public Schools School Committee member, said in an Oct. 15 interview. She described a multi-step process in which district administrators prepare a detailed budget packet, present it to the finance subcommittee and then bring proposals to the full committee for public discussion and approval.

Wetzel said the finance and personnel subcommittee meets frequently during budget season — roughly biweekly — to review budget lines and project needs. The district’s budget packet, she added, includes line-item detail and charts that show spending by category (transportation, salaries, utilities) to help the public understand where funds are allocated.

Curriculum and program changes typically follow a pilot process, Wetzel said: staff and stakeholders test prospective materials in selected schools before the committee approves funding to roll them districtwide. “We do pilots. So we will get stakeholder involvement, our staff members, to help select the curriculum and then they will be piloted in different schools to see... how does this work?” she said.

Special education funding and mandates: Wetzel emphasized that many special education services are state- or federally mandated and that the district receives state and federal funding for those programs. She said the committee reviews funding and receives updates from assistant administrators to ensure programs have necessary resources, but that administration runs day-to-day operations of those departments.

Staffing example: Wetzel said the committee approved an additional assistant principal at the high school this year — a position intended to provide building-level leadership for grade-level administration. “We added an additional assistant principal at the high school... we were fortunate enough to be able to keep it on the budget,” she said.

Public involvement: Wetzel encouraged residents to attend finance subcommittee meetings or full school committee sessions, review the posted budget packet and use public comment periods or direct email to raise concerns or suggestions.