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Superintendent presents FY27 balanced budget and outlines proposed staff reductions
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Thornton presented a balanced FY27 budget but said the district still faces a shortfall and proposed targeted staff and position reductions (including four middle-school "essentials" positions) as options to balance finances; the committee held discussion and scheduled follow-up workshops with no action tonight.
Dr. Thornton, the district superintendent, presented the superintendent's proposed FY27 budget and said the package presented at the March 12 meeting is balanced but still requires trade-offs to address a shortfall.
"We do have a balanced budget to present to you," Dr. Thornton said, while noting the district is working with new state aid of about $2,100,000 and local modeling of a 4% levy increase (roughly $2,000,000). Even with those amounts, he said, the district faced a gap of more than $1,000,000 that staff had tried to close through identified reductions and modeling.
The superintendent outlined recommended reductions presented for committee consideration: eliminating two "essentials" teachers at North Cumberland Middle School and two at the other middle school (one ELA and one math at each school, totaling four FTEs); not filling a carpenter assistant vacancy created by retirement; reducing a 0.5 reading position at Cumberland Hill; not replacing a clerical/library clerk retirement; and eliminating a part-time administrative greeter position in the preschool/main office area. Dr. Thornton said those changes add to roughly $942,000 of direct position savings and that the district modeled an additional $300,000 in anticipated turnover/breakage, bringing the combined figure under consideration to about $1,242,000.
Mr. McGrath, who joined the presentation, summarized other budget work on payroll categories, overtimes, and the 53/54/55 series, and said the team is continuing to refine quotes and numbers ahead of further workshops.
Trustees asked detailed questions. Miss Shay pressed about tuition and out-of-district revenue; Dr. Thornton said current enrollment includes 99 students coming from Pawtucket and Woonsocket and the district is modeling 110 next year. Miss Smith and others cautioned about cutting intervention and multilingual learner supports, noting those positions are difficult and costly to restore. Committee members also discussed transportation and the possibility of an opt-in/opt-out approach for busing as a potential area for savings (one bus was noted as roughly $100,000).
Dr. Thornton stressed the budget contains no fund balance use for the first time in many years and said he and Mr. McGrath had reviewed the district's position with the auditor general earlier in the day. The superintendent said more workshops are scheduled and that no formal action was taken on the FY27 budget tonight.
Next steps: the committee will continue the budget process in upcoming workshops and is accepting feedback from members before the next meeting.
