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Central High robotics team urges City Council to restore and sustain extracurricular funding after proposed cuts
Summary
A Central High student told the Education Committee the district’s proposed FY2026 budget would cut extracurricular funding by about 22%—roughly $1.3 million—after recent partial restorations; council members praised student advocacy and expressed support for sustained funding.
Liliana Sand, a student at Central High School and a member of the school’s robotics team, told the City Council Education Committee that extracurricular funding for citywide robotics programs has been unstable and that a proposed budget cut would reverse gains made through recent advocacy.
“As our robotics team, these opportunities have absolutely 100% changed my life,” Sand said. She told the committee the superintendent announced restorations of $1,200,000 for this year and $1,800,000 for next year after advocacy, but that the fiscal-year 2026 proposed budget contains a 22% decrease—about $1,300,000—reducing funds that pay extracurricular coaches.
“This time, most of the money is coming out of, funding for extracurricular pay for teachers, which means that most of our teams won't have coaches,” Sand said, adding that many teams did not survive prior cuts. She described work by Central students to start and support roughly 140 robotics teams across the city and said last year Central won the FIRST Robotics World Championship.
Council members responded in support of the students’ advocacy. Councilman Isaiah Thomas, chair of the Education Committee, said the students’ advocacy “landed on the elected officials” and “became the talk of the group text.” Councilman Jamie Gauthier praised efforts to expand access citywide and said a decision not to include stable funding would be “penny wise and pound foolish” for a multi-billion-dollar city budget. Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad asked about sustaining the program and suggested the graduating students leave a blueprint so other schools can replicate the model.
Sand said the robotics program trains students not only to build and operate robots but to teach the next generation of teams across the city. She invited council members to visit Central and noted the robot used in instruction, named Leonardo da Pinchy, is being kept as a teaching tool.
No formal vote on budget amendments occurred during the testimony; the session recessed and will continue at a later date.
