Duxbury High principal says budget override failure would cut electives, supports and increase class sizes

Jen Cotton Herman, principal of Duxbury High School, said in a recorded public comment that failure of a proposed budget override would force cuts to elective courses, limit co-curricular activities, increase class sizes and reduce access to guidance counselors during the summer, directly affecting students' ability to access teachers and college application support.

Herman told listeners the override is intended to preserve what she called “real needs funding” that supports classroom sizes, academic and social-emotional programs and elective offerings. “This real needs funding will allow us to keep essential academic and social emotional supports in place, maintain appropriate class sizes, which allow all students vital access to their teachers, and continue offering elective courses that draw students in, engage them, and help them develop their interests and passions as they work to be college and career ready,” she said.

In the comment, Herman outlined several specific consequences she said would follow if the override does not pass: cuts to co-curricular activities, elimination of some popular elective courses, increases in class size, reduced access to formal intervention programs she named as “F. I. R. E. and SOAR,” and a reduction of guidance office summer hours and days that would limit students' and families' opportunities to meet with counselors during college application season. She said course combinations and elective cuts would compress the high school schedule and could result in students being placed where space is available rather than in courses of their choice. “Not passing this override will directly impact your students' high school experience,” Herman said.

Herman closed by encouraging residents to learn more about current student programs through videos she said are available on a site referenced in her comment. The recorded comment did not specify the dollar amount requested, the proposed override ballot date, or whether the statement was made during a school committee meeting or another public forum.

No formal vote or official action on the override was recorded in the provided transcript segment; the remarks appear in the public-comment portion of a meeting recording.