Norwood School Committee endorses $828,697 in preliminary cuts, approves $50,000 legal transfer and announces new safety director

The Norwood School Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 25 voted 4-0 to direct district administrators to advance a set of preliminary budget reductions totaling $828,697 and to request a review of local revenue projections before pursuing deeper cuts. At the meeting the administration also announced it has hired Dr. Hugh Galligan, currently principal of Norwood High School, to serve as the district’s director of safety, compliance and communication. The committee separately approved a $50,000 intra-district transfer to cover legal services costs and then entered executive session by unanimous roll call.

The committee’s action responds to a request from the town’s Budget Balancing Committee (BBC) to reduce the school department’s preliminary budget by roughly $1.2 million. District administrators presented three tiers of possible reductions and recommended the committee advance the tier 1 package to BBC while seeking confirmation of revenue and local-receipt projections before cutting further.

Tier 1 reductions presented to the committee total $828,697 and consist primarily of staffing and program adjustments the administration described as achievable with manageable instructional impact. The largest category of savings—about $391,500—comes from changing how several elementary specialist positions are staffed and from…