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Westerly council and school committee debate use of multi-year surpluses as enrollment falls
Summary
At a joint meeting, the Westerly School Committee and Town Council reviewed declining enrollment, the district’s multi-year budget surpluses and competing priorities including smaller class sizes, CTE expansion and teacher retention; councilors signaled caution about recurring use of reserves and requested an additional joint budget meeting before final town submissions.
Westerly’s Town Council met jointly with the Westerly School Committee to review the school district’s priorities ahead of the 2026 budget season and to discuss how the district has been managing repeated surpluses while enrollment has declined.
The meeting opened with the school committee summarizing a recent presentation on attendance, achievement gaps and supports for multilingual learners and students behind grade level. The committee said its priorities include preserving small class sizes, expanding career and technical education (CTE) where there is sustainable demand, and ensuring teachers have the planning time and professional development to implement curriculum changes.
“Attendance has been a problem,” said a council member who highlighted a statewide push on attendance and praised district efforts. The committee said exact enrollment figures would be provided, noting recent declines had begun to plateau.
A councilor and resident who identified himself as a West High graduate told the committee he would support level funding for the schools next year unless the district demonstrates it will spend existing surpluses. “Spend the money we give you,” he said, adding he believed the district had carried surpluses for several years and would vote to level-fund the schools until funds are expended.
School Committee members and administrators responded that multi-year surpluses reflect several factors, including unfilled positions, one-time grant funding during COVID-19 and other timing issues. “There are times where we are tasked with having to move funds and saying, like, okay, we weren’t able to do this,” a committee member said, explaining that vacancies leave money budgeted but unspent. The committee cautioned against relying on reserves to cover recurring operational costs because it is not sustainable.
Members discussed restoring five previously funded positions, with school leaders warning that using one-time surplus money to fund recurring positions can create future budget shortfalls. On CTE, the committee said there is interest in expanding programs such as aviation, culinary and health pathways but that geographic competition and staffing capacity are important constraints.
Councilors pressed for clearer benchmarks to judge whether new programs improve student outcomes. “We did ask the question of, you know, what are we gonna use as benchmarks to say, okay, these are the right programs for us,” a committee member said, noting some curriculum elements were recently implemented and need time to show results.
Both bodies agreed to schedule a second joint meeting ahead of the town’s budget submission so councilors can review department head presentations, ask follow-up questions and better evaluate whether proposed spending matches outcomes. The committee urged the council to consider one-time capital uses versus recurring operational asks and to weigh teacher recruitment and retention needs when evaluating year-to-year funding decisions.
The meeting closed that portion with the school committee adjourning and the council returning to its regular agenda; councilors asked the superintendent to provide updated enrollment numbers and requested the committee include more detailed cost and implementation timelines in future budget materials.
