Town forum clarifies how education spending is tallied and flags a $5.77M school reserve

At an unspecified town forum, participants debated how the town tallies education spending and whether a $5,773,434 school reserve fund is effectively available for school needs.

One participant, identified in the transcript as Speaker 2, said the 52% (or 51.9%) figure cited in public discussion "is actually North Attleborough Public Schools" and that the number is drawn from the town's departmental budget based on a $113,000,000 budget. Speaker 2 added that "Tri County comes to an average tuition of about $3,800,000 every year" and that the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) project for a new Tri County high school will add about $2,700,000 next year, meaning Tri County-related costs total roughly $6.5–$7.0 million borne by the town.

The exchange focused on how those Tri County amounts are included in public-facing education percentages. Speaker 1 had opened the conversation by saying people often assume the 52% figure refers solely to local schools and urged the forum to "dial in on North Attleborough Public Schools." Speaker 2 described how different line items — town-paid tuition for regional schools and town-paid health insurance for school employees — are recorded in the town budget.

A separate concern came from Speaker 3, who questioned the accessibility of the school reserve fund. "I'm still boggled by the reserve number that I saw of the school reserve fund is $5,773,434," Speaker 3 said, adding that the fund appears to sit in a non-interest-bearing account and that they had been told by the superintendent it was "not real money." Speaker 3 asked why the account grows each year and suggested interest could buy equipment such as Chromebooks.

In response, Speaker 4 told the group they did not know which account Speaker 3 referenced and cautioned that many accounts are one-time revenues designated for specific purposes. "That's something we can't just tap into those random accounts because they're most of it's one-time revenue for a very specific purpose," Speaker 4 said, giving "parking fees" as an example and saying the town cannot use one-time funds to cover recurring expenses.

The discussion also noted recent budget changes and staffing trends. Speaker 3 said the education budget rose about 8% for 2025–26 while public safety and public works rose 1.5% and 1.9% respectively, and expressed concern that superintendent and assistant superintendent compensation had increased while teacher staffing (described as "down around 15%") remains low.

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the provided transcript. The discussion centered on clarifying which costs are counted in public education-spending figures and on requests for clearer accounting and access rules for reserve and restricted funds.