Lowell School Committee advances budget after heated public comments urging protection for student support staff

The Lowell School Committee on April 15 debated and approved several FY27 budget adjustments after an extended public comment period in which students, school staff and parents urged the committee to preserve student support specialists, clerk schedulers and school-based social workers.

Dozens of speakers described how the positions targeted for cuts are central to day-to-day student supports. "They're not just staff. They're mentors," student Jason Lozada told the committee, describing a student support specialist who helped him avoid suspension and stay on track toward graduation. Multiple clerical schedulers and counselors said cuts would shift vital administrative work onto counselors and reduce time counselors can spend face-to-face with students.

Administration officials defended the proposed allocations while promising more detail. Superintendent Skinner said budget transfers and late‑year adjustments are common and offered to provide account-level mappings to reconcile Munis reports with the budget book. He told the committee the district had "managed the budget better than we have ever managed it before" and agreed to supply additional documentation about transfers and line-item coding.

Committee members focused much of their questioning on transportation and technology spending. Deputy CFO DuPont said the FY27 transportation budget included a roughly $2.4 million increase — about $447,967 for regular education transportation and $1.8 million for homeless transportation — driven by higher demand and contract increases. Members also debated a $1,000,000 technology hardware line and a separate $1,000,000 software administration line.

Member Bahu successfully moved to reduce the computer hardware line from $1,000,000 to $700,000, arguing the district had underspent in FY26 and the unspent amount could help restore personnel. That motion passed on a roll call (5 ayes, 1 nay, 1 out). A separate motion to cut $200,000 from the computer software administration line failed (3 ayes, 3 nays, 1 absent). The committee also approved removing two proposed part‑time computer repair tech positions (savings of about $52,416) on a separate vote.

On larger budget totals, the committee approved an updated finance and operations bottom line of $6,952,867 after several line-item votes and adjustments. Pages covering teaching staff and certain school-based proposals drew more debate; members expressed particular concern about reductions affecting English learner (MLL/ELL) teachers and said they wanted additional data showing compliance with state guardrails before voting on some items. Several votes on specific pages failed or were deferred pending more information.

Administration repeatedly said some apparent reductions were recoding or reclassification rather than outright eliminations, and that additional grant or state funds (including Chapter 70 increases) affect the final local allocation. Committee members asked for account-level detail linking Munis account numbers to the budget book so they can trace transfers and understand whether funds taken from some lines will reduce services or simply reflect timing differences.

The committee left several choices to the suspense account process: members agreed to continue work on remaining pages and finalize restorations or additional cuts at a reconvened meeting. The committee recessed and set a follow-up meeting for next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. to finish outstanding budget pages and decide whether to restore positions from the suspense account.

What happened next: the committee scheduled a reconvening to finalize suspense-account totals and to consider restoration requests from the high school and other schools. No final determinations on restoring student support specialists or clerk schedulers were made at the April 15 meeting; the district committed to provide the requested account reconciliations and additional cost detail before the next vote.

Why it matters: Lowell Public Schools is weighing cuts that staff and students say will directly affect student safety, mental health and access to services. Committee members signaled they want more transparent account-level data before finalizing decisions and left open the option to restore prioritized positions within the suspense account funds.