Westborough schools present $73.4 million draft budget that keeps ‘level services’ and flags urgent roof work

Superintendent Allison presented a draft FY26 school budget to the Westborough School Committee, saying the plan aims to maintain current programs while limiting the overall increase to a sustainable level.

Allison said the draft puts the total budget at about $73,400,000 and estimates roughly a 4.17% increase over the prior year. “The total budget cost, dollars 73,400,000.0,” she told the committee, and she stressed personnel remains the largest cost: “just over 80% of our budget is ... in salary.”

The administration is proposing what Allison called a ‘‘level services’’ budget — a plan to preserve class sizes, programs and services while identifying about $400,000 in reductions achievable through attrition and reconfiguration. She described level services as different from level funding, which she said would require far deeper cuts: “If we were to do that [level funding], it would require the elimination of about 35 staff positions,” Allison said.

Major cost drivers highlighted included mandated special‑education obligations, rising out‑of‑district tuition and transportation costs. Allison warned that out‑of‑district tuition has climbed sharply in recent years and said school leaders statewide are pressing to raise the state’s circuit‑breaker reimbursement from 75% to 90% to help districts cover those costs.

On capital needs, Allison singled out the high‑school roof — the original 1968 roof — as the district’s most urgent capital issue and said engineers describe it as being “at the end of its life.” The administration discussed pursuing MSBA restoration projects as a less‑involved route to secure partial reimbursement; Allison said MSBA restoration work could yield roughly a 49% reimbursement.

Committee members pressed for more detail on several points. Member Steve urged that consultants working on K–3 redistricting consult planning‑department projections for housing development to account for how new units could change enrollment forecasts. Steve also asked for an explicit cost/benefit report before any decision on the Gibbons field house, where the administration described demolition as likely to be cheaper than repair; Steve said he would not support demolition without an honest analysis of demolition and relocation costs.

Allison said uncertain collective‑bargaining outcomes make parts of the budget provisional and that she will return with a final version at the budget hearing in a few weeks and a vote in December.

Next steps: the district will refine line items as negotiations conclude, provide more detailed dollar figures for priorities at upcoming public hearings and present a final budget to the committee for a vote later this year.