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Braintree School Committee approves FY26 level-services budget, cites special-education cost pressures
Summary
The committee approved a $82.79 million FY26 budget that maintains staffing while adding a minibus, a LYNX classroom, and recurring security software costs. Members and staff warned of continuing structural gaps driven by special education and transportation costs.
Braintree — The Braintree School Committee on Monday approved a level-services fiscal year 2026 budget of $82,789,178 after a public hearing in which district finance staff described rising special-education and transportation costs as the main drivers of the increase.
Finance Director Sarah Kaufman told the committee the FY26 plan assumes a 2% cost-of-living-adjustment for salaries, adds a leased minibus at about $55,000 plus a driver, funds a projected LYNX special-education classroom (about $125,000 for one teacher and two paraprofessionals) and folds roughly $110,000 of ongoing security and safety software maintenance into the operating budget.
Kaufman said those items are the limited increases inside an otherwise level-services budget and called attention to several key uncertainties: unsettled union contracts, summer registration fluctuations that affect section sizes, and year-to-year changes in individual IEPs and out-of-district tuition demands. “For this budget presentation, we are assuming a 2% COLA for all salaries,” Kaufman…
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