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Lowell School Committee approves FY2026 budget amendments, sets $271,489,114 final bottom line
Summary
At a July special meeting the Lowell School Committee approved cuts to a vacant Director of English Language Services position and other accounts to balance the FY2026 budget, setting a final bottom line of $271,489,114 to send to the city manager.
The Lowell School Committee on July 1 approved a package of budget amendments to balance the Lowell Public Schools FY2026 budget at $271,489,114 and directed staff to submit that final figure to the city manager.
Superintendent (unnamed) told the committee the district had restored positions at a May 21 hearing but failed to include offsetting reductions, leaving the proposed budget over by $364,853. “Weare going to reduce the director of English language services position, which is vacant at the moment,” the superintendent said, and proposed cuts to overtime and miscellaneous accounts to produce a $364,853 reduction.
The committee voted on a sequence of motions to implement the adjustments. Mister Lay moved, seconded by Miss Martin, to reduce the instructional leadership line by $140,000 tied to the Director of English Language Services; the motion passed on roll call with five members voting yes and two absent. The committee then approved a revised instructional leadership bottom-line of $3,515,177 (motion by Mister Conway, second by Mister Dougherty).
Members also approved reducing the suspense account by $224,873 (motion by Miss Daugherty, second by Miss Mahan) and set the suspense account bottom-line at $3,767,765 (motion by Mister Lay, second by Mister Conway). Those votes were recorded by roll call and approved with five ayes and two absences.
Finally, the committee voted to adopt the districts FY2026 final bottom-line figure of $271,489,114 and to forward that figure to the city manager (motion by Mister Lay, second by Miss Mayne). The meeting adjourned after a motion to end deliberations (moved by Mister Lay, seconded by Miss Dorey).
The actions taken adjust multiple line items but do not create any new positions; the superintendent recommended the package to bring the FY2026 bottom line into balance. The committee recorded no formal amendments to change those amounts during the meeting and did not delay submission to the city manager.
