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Bedford School Board unveils $97.77 million FY27 budget; cites contract costs, special‑education placements and program cuts

Bedford School Board · January 13, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The Bedford School Board presented a proposed FY27 operating budget of $97,000,768, driven by HealthTrust premium increases and a multiyear teacher contract; the proposal includes roughly $663,000 in program reductions (including elimination of American Sign Language at the high school) and capital work such as ADA door upgrades and paging system replacements.

The Bedford School Board on Tuesday held a public hearing on a proposed fiscal year 2027 operating budget of $97,000,768, an increase of about $4 million (4.26%) over the prior year that Superintendent Mike Fournier said is driven primarily by health‑insurance premiums and recent collective‑bargaining agreements.

"Those rates, before we even started working on the budget, represented a $1,500,000 increase in our operating budget," Fournier said, and he added that a three‑year teacher contract approved by voters adds close to $2,000,000 to teacher salaries for FY27.

The presentation laid out budget priorities that include maintaining class sizes, replacing aging technology, investing in curriculum and instructional resources, and several building‑security and accessibility upgrades. Capital items highlighted include elevator…

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