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The Winchester School Committee is still honing its fiscal year 2027 budget, but with a number of deadlines looming, the window for tweaking is just about closed.
During the Jan. 22 School Committee meeting, member Michelle Berstrom presented a revised budget timeline that includes:
• Jan. 28, 2026 – Budget Summit with Select Board, Finance Committee and School Committee
• Feb. 5, 2026 – Public hearing and vote on the FY27 School Budget
• Feb. 9 2026 – Special Town Meeting where the override will be discussed along with the model that the State of the Town Committee has developed.
• March 21, 2026 – Community votes on the override (if approved by Town Meeting)
What does the budget look like?
The School Committee budget is $77,331,754. Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett said it represents a 9.32% increase, but that includes a level services budget with 5% rollover growth as well as priorities identified by the School Committee.
School Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji said they presented the budget to the Select Board about two weeks ago going over the priorities “that we’ve been discussing for the last eight months, years, even.”
Committee member Tim Matthews said while the 9.8% increase is greater than past asks, it is also “sort of a one-time truing up” of the budget aimed at the betterment of students. He said many surrounding communities are seeing level service increases ranging from 7% to 10% and they’ve managed to keep level service growth combined with additional requests for essential services under the 10% mark.
“I think it is a great testament to the fact that we’re being fiscally responsible and have continued the tradition of strong fiscal management,” he said.
Mnayarji said determining those priorities has forced the committee to take a hard look at what kind of school district they want to be, where they hope to go and the needs and challenges they’ve been facing. The override has given them an opportunity to invest in those areas, she said.
Essential services
Mnayarji there are three major categories: curriculum updates, which include math as well as literacy, tiered supports, or targeted support for struggling students and equity.
“We are looking at different opportunities to address some of the inequities between our five elementary schools,” she said.
Hackett also spoke of budget drivers, such as:
• Collective bargaining — Of the five units, two are settled; one, the teacher’s contract, is pending, and two are yet to be negotiated.
• Special education — Out-of-district tuition and transportation are also concerns.
• Unexpected cost — Hackett said there positions that needed to be filled after the current budget was passed last spring, resulting in unbudgeted expenses that they’ve had to adjust for.
• Athletics — There is a structural deficit in the athletics program, which is a result of the department running out of reserve funds, Hackett said.
• Substitute line — It’s never matched what is actually spent so this year they closed the gap a bit, Hackett said.
And while there has been much emphasis put on literacy at the elementary level, Hackett said there are also commitments that need to be made on the high school level as well.
What if the override fails?
If the override fails at Town Meeting or the ballot box, Hackett said the school budget would likely revert to a level funded budget with the same amount of funding that’s in the current budget.
“So unlike level services, where we’re rolling forward and we’re making sure that we’re covering all of our obligations, this exercise, and it is an exercise, forces us to think about a scenario where we aren’t able to meet level services,” he said.
Hackett said it’s something the budget subcommittee would be working on over the coming weeks.
The next stop on the budget train, however, is the Budget Summit on Wednesday, Jan. 28, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the Select Board room.
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
