Committee grills central office and principals on FY26 staffing, vacancies and proposed conversions

The Fall River School Committee spent the bulk of its March 18 meeting on the proposed FY26 budget, with principals and central office staff answering sustained questions about staffing conversions, unfilled positions and program priorities.

Superintendent Dr. Mary Curley told the committee she provided principals a standard presentation template as a guide for budget requests and said principals used it “for consideration” while preparing their school budgets. She said the administration encouraged conversions of existing positions rather than adding entirely new roles where possible. "I did... send it twice out to the school leaders and departmental leaders and there was definitely some language in there that said like it would be a tough sell really to just create new positions that we didn't already have," she said during the meeting.

Why the debate mattered: several principals described specific requests that did not make the prioritized budget list — requests for unified-arts (visual/performing arts) teachers at Stone and RPA, conversions from itinerant positions into full-time unified-arts roles, and…