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Springfield School Committee hears budget update, approves contract for chief financial operations officer
Summary
The Springfield School Committee received an overview of net school spending and a transportation-budget update from Chief Pat Roche, took public comment on budget incentives, approved minutes from March meetings and voted to approve the chief financial operations officer’s contract.
At a meeting of the Springfield School Committee, Mayor Sarno and members heard a budget briefing and approved a contract for the district’s chief financial operations officer.
Public commenter Juan Latore asked whether state rules and minimum per-pupil requirements limit the ability of school departments to retain savings, saying, “I’ve heard the mayor mentioned many times that when it comes to the school budget, it’s not something we can cut,” and asking whether there is value in trying to save money at the local level.
Mayor Sarno and committee members thanked the superintendent and the finance and facilities teams for their work. The mayor said the city budget will top $1,000,000,000 for the first time and that roughly $700 million is on the school side, and he praised the teams for focusing on one-time projects rather than recurring spending.
Pat Roche, identified in the meeting record as the city’s finance chief, explained how the general fund budget is structured: “our general fund budget really has 2 components. One’s called, net school spending, and that’s the part that if anything gets cut, it has to get spent on education.” He said non-net-school components include transportation, leases and adult education and noted that transportation costs decreased this year — the first decline in about 17 years — largely because charter-school expansion did not increase.
A committee member asked whether the buses marked “Springfield Public Schools” are paid from the school budget; Roche responded that those buses are part of the transportation budget that does not count toward net school spending and that First Student operates the buses and the cost comes to the city side of the budget.
The committee moved and approved two sets of minutes (regular meetings on 03/12/2026 and 03/26/2026) by roll-call vote. Later in the meeting the committee considered and voted on a personnel contract to approve the chief financial operations officer’s contract; the item was moved and seconded and the record shows the matter passed.
The meeting closed after a motion to adjourn. The committee did not schedule further votes on the items discussed at this session.
