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Southampton committee lays out staff, service cuts tied to $1.9M and $2.5M override votes
Summary
Administrators told the Southampton School Committee that if neither a $1.9 million nor a $2.5 million override passes, Norris School would face additional reductions — shrinking reading intervention, nursing and paraprofessional coverage — and detailed what partial and full overrides would restore.
Administrators told the Southampton School Committee that two override ballot questions — $1.9 million and $2.5 million — would determine whether services cut in FY26 are partially or fully restored at Norris School.
Principal Alisa said Norris currently enrolls 481 students and walked members through the cuts already taken and additional reductions that would follow if overrides fail. “We have 481 students, which is the same as last month,” Alisa said, and outlined staff reductions: preschool paraprofessionals’ hours cut to four days, a 0.8 FTE paraprofessional lost, the reading interventionist reduced from 1.8 FTE to 1.0, nursing reduced from two full-time positions to 1.5, speech and occupational therapy hours trimmed, and a vice principal role shortened to 190 days.
The committee heard why those reductions matter. “Then these additional cuts are really going to take those services away and we’re we’re going to be in a a very dire situation within the school,” Superintendent Veto said, pressing that previous FY26 cuts eliminated filled positions that delivered direct services. Administrators and members warned that fewer intervention staff would increase special-education needs and make classroom differentiation more challenging.
Under the $1.9 million override scenario, administrators said the town contribution to the FY27 budget would allow for partial restorations: a full-time math interventionist, an art teacher, the reading intervention position returning to 1.0 FTE and restoration of kindergarten staffing so the school could return to four kindergarten sections. “So we’d be back up to four sections of kindergarten,” Alisa said when describing the partial restoration.
The $2.5 million option would be a restorative budget, administrators said, returning staff and services to pre-cut levels: two reading intervention teachers (2.0), two full-time nurses, the full-time administrative assistant, restoration of OT and speech services, and replenished professional development and supply accounts. Administrators noted that both override questions will appear separately on the ballot and only the higher successful amount would prevail.
Committee members discussed timing and strategy. The panel emphasized that town meeting must place any override questions on the ballot (a two‑thirds vote at town meeting) and that ballot outcomes (51% required for passage) will determine whether the committee needs to revisit the base budget. Members asked that the one-page budget summary be clarified (use “retirement savings” instead of “anticipated savings from new hires”) and distributed to the community under the chair’s signature.
What’s next: the committee will continue outreach and finalize materials ahead of the town meeting and ballot; members discussed scheduling a possible special town meeting in June to act if required by regional results. If neither override passes, administrators said they will need to implement the additional cuts described at Norris.
