North Attleborough schools present $53.4M needs-based budget; town manager proposes $51.3M

A school administrator told the school committee that a needs-based budget for North Attleborough Public Schools totals $53.4 million, while the town manager recently presented a $51.3 million budget to the town council, roughly $2.1 million less than the schools requested.

The administrator said the district’s starting point was last year’s $49 million budget and that adding salaries for existing personnel requires about $2.1 million. "We had, again, developed a needs based budget because we were asked to. And that needs based budget totaled 53,400,000.0, but the town manager did present his budget to town council, a couple of weeks ago. And his budget, number is right here, 51,300,000.0, which is over $2,000,000 less than what we had asked for," the school administrator said.

Why it matters: committee members said the gap matters for classroom staffing, athletics and curriculum. The administrator outlined a tiered approach that would first fund salaries for existing personnel, create an operating budget for athletics and add three teachers proposed to address large class sizes.

Details discussed included a proposed $200,000 increase in revenue that the administrator said would help narrow the gap. "I'm recommending or suggesting that we could use an additional $200,000 worth of revenue, which is which helps," the administrator said. The administrator also recommended building an operating budget for athletics: "I'm still recommending that we build an operating budget for athletics because we don't have 1." Committee members noted the athletics budget proposal depends in part on increased user fees.

On staffing, the administrator said the district could fund "the 3 teachers that we had built in to address the high class sizes. There's 2 way community, 1 at Mark," language used in the meeting to describe where the three positions would be allocated.

Committee members also discussed a current posting for a community school assistant principal. One member questioned whether the posting should be revised so the hire would serve part time at the community school and part time at Ambit School, with a higher salary to reflect split duties. That member asked: "You have a posting out right now for a community school assistant principal. Correct? I would rewrite that, and I would I would say that that person is not only gonna be the assistant principal at the community school, but they're also gonna be a part time assistant principal at Ambit School. And you would bump up the salary to accommodate that?"

Other members expressed concern about asking one person to help run two schools. A committee member said: "I also just think about what that would look like for a person to be forced to run to help run 2 schools and especially 1 of the community. Like, I I think it's I think it's super creative, but I also wish that we didn't even have to try and think about that because I don't personally see how it works." Another member noted other districts sometimes assign split roles when budgets are tight.

On outside funding, a committee member referenced state education funding, saying, "Adam Scanlon has been incredibly clear with anyone who will listen and even those who don't wanna listen that the chapter 70 fund should be coming to the schools." The same member said they had asked Doctor Antonucci not to pursue a vote at that meeting because the district still lacked a firm number: "I had asked Doctor. Antonucci that we not take a vote tonight, because we still don't have a firm number."

Next steps: committee members did not take a vote at the meeting. Multiple members indicated they want final town-manager numbers and clarity on Chapter 70 funding before formal action.

Notes: The account above summarizes discussion only; no formal motions or votes on the district budget were recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.