Braintree School Committee approves FY26 level-services budget, cites special-education cost pressures

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 said.

Committee members and staff emphasized the district received a Town Hall commitment to fully fund the level-services FY26 budget and to create a special-education stabilization fund that the district may draw on for unbudgeted special-education expenses. Kaufman said that commitment let the district reduce a tuition “buffer” in the operating budget and rely on the newly proposed stabilization fund as a contingency.

Despite the single-year funding commitment, Kaufman and several committee members warned that longer-term projections show a continuing structural gap: Town Hall has identified about 3.5% as an affordable annual growth rate for the schools, while the district’s multi-year cost projections are higher (roughly 4–4.5% by the district’s estimate). “There is still that structural gap…we will have to keep an eye on and just continuously look for ways to contain costs and improve our efficiency,” Kaufman said.

Budget category changes highlighted in the presentation included a roughly 7% increase in administration (driven by special-education legal and translator services), 7.4% in guidance and counseling (special-education contracted services such as registered behavior technicians and BCBAs), 7.4% in pupil services (transportation cost increases tied to a new three-year bus lease and an additional minibus), and an 18.9% rise in operations and maintenance driven by previously grant-funded security software now moving to the operating budget. Programs with other districts (largely out-of-district tuitions) rose about 10%, a change Kaufman attributed to higher vendor tuition rates and an anticipated decrease in circuit-breaker reimbursements.

School Committee discussion noted past reductions to personnel and nonpersonnel lines in FY25 and the committee’s intent to evaluate whether some supply and professional-development spending can be incrementally restored in future years. Committee member Dr. Horak said he was “happy” the budget requires no program eliminations or staffing cuts for FY26; other members pressed for vigilance on special-education delivery and legal costs.

The committee voted on the DESE budget categories one by one. Most category votes were unanimous; the teachers category passed with six votes in favor and one abstention (Mr. Rolle abstained from the teachers category vote). The grand total budget vote passed unanimously. The committee also approved a routine authorization that allows the superintendent to transfer up to $100,000 between categories during the fiscal year and to make additional emergency transfers with committee consultation; the committee requested notification of any emergency transfers at the next meeting.

The committee will forward the approved budget to the mayor’s office and the Town Council’s ways and means committee as part of the municipal budget process.

Ending: The approved FY26 budget keeps current staffing and programming in place while adding limited targeted capacity in special education, transportation and security software. Committee members said they plan continued oversight of out-year projections and to seek ways to close the structural funding gap.