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Educators urge Easton School Committee to support override; district outlines priority restorations
Summary
The Eastern Educators Association urged the school committee to back a municipal override, while district leaders detailed how override funds would be prioritized for elementary teachers, nurses, summer programming and multilingual supports.
Members of the Eastern Educators Association told the Easton School Committee on May 8 that the district needs an override to avoid staff cuts and program reductions, while district leaders laid out priority restorations they would pursue if an override passes.
Zachary Dyer, speaking on behalf of the Eastern Educators Association, said the district is "woefully underfunded" and urged the committee and the community to support a revenue override. "When a town like Easton finds itself in a multimillion dollar hole, it is not the result of gross incompetence or mismanagement. A hole this big is systemic," Dyer said. He warned that without new revenue, "it will be our frontline educators who are let go. It will be our students who will have to go without the programming they deserve."
Superintendent Dr. Cabral presented the district's list of priority restorations that would be funded by the school portion of a proposed override. He said the district has prepared a ranked list for leaders: first priorities include restoring elementary classroom positions and specialists, addressing nurse coverage and paraprofessional support; other priorities include multilingual learner staff, a math coach at Blanche Ames and summer learning partnerships.
Dr. Cabral said the district currently plans priority restorations to cover classroom sizes and student supports and noted uncertainty about state aid levels that could change the town's fiscal picture. "We still don't even know what the state budget is going to be, and so we don't know what the circuit breaker is going to be," he said, adding that federal and state grant outcomes remain unknown.
On staffing, Dr. Cabral said the district is concerned about nurse absences and would prefer to fund a dedicated registered nurse rather than rely on repeated substitutes. He noted the district's leadership team has ranked requests and will use enrollment and program data to guide restorations.
Staff and committee members discussed how state aid (the Cherry Sheet) flows to the town and noted that even if minimum aid proposals pass at the state level, the town ultimately allocates funds to the schools through the municipal budget process.
No formal vote on the override occurred at the meeting. The district said further decisions depend on town budget actions and final state funding figures.
