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School superintendent outlines expansion, enrollment growth and $5.8 million of cuts to balance FY26 budget
Summary
Lynn Public Schools Superintendent Alvarez presented the FY26 school budget, describing large Chapter 70 funding, major program expansions (new seats and facilities), rising costs in healthcare, pensions and special education, and approximately $5.8 million in reductions including clinician and administrator positions to produce a balanced plan.
Superintendent Naomi Alvarez told the city council’s budget committee that Lynn Public Schools will receive $317,126,307 in Chapter 70 funds for FY26 and outlined major investments and cost pressures in the coming year.
“We increased 1,000 students over the course of a year,” Alvarez said, explaining why the district is holding unassigned teacher units (five teacher units and funding) in the superintendent’s office budget to accommodate enrollment spikes.
Alvarez described planned expansions she said are central to the budget: 176 new seats at Frederick Douglass Academy and a new City Arts & Sciences Academy at Casa Lin with 300 seats (a combined 476 seats in year one) and a full pre-K center planned at the Bennett Street site with 292 pre-K seats. She said the district is expanding career-technical (Chapter 74) pathways, dual-language programs and early literacy investments.
At the same time Alvarez said the district faces significant cost increases that contributed to a tightening of the budget: a roughly 10.2% rise in health insurance costs, about a 15% increase in pension funding, higher inspectional services costs, rising special education out‑of‑district tuition (projected to increase about 13.1%), transportation increases and technology spending.
Alvarez said the balanced FY26 plan required reductions and adjustments totaling about $5.8 million, including repositioning instructional coaches back into classrooms, reductions through attrition in a clinical unit (including several clinician and administrator positions) and other contract and operating cuts. She said the district reached a tentative agreement with the Lynn Teachers Union that will need funding but that the district and the school committee are working to finalize adjustments.
Councilors asked whether school resource officer positions were affected; Alvarez responded that SRO positions “were not touched,” and she provided a list of middle and high schools that currently have SRO coverage. She also said department heads will remain in post but are scheduled to teach four sections in order to offset staffing needs, and that administrator salaries remain unchanged.
Discussion: Alvarez emphasized rapid enrollment growth and capital plans (Casa Lin, Bennett Street pre-K) as reasons for holding teacher units unassigned until placement is needed. The school committee is scheduled to take further action on the school budget at its June 12 meeting; the city council will hold its public hearing June 17 before final adoption.
