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When he took over the reins as School Committee chair on March 26, Tim Matthews said he hoped to be giving a very different speech.
“After almost a year of preparation, followed by a sprint to last Saturday’s town wide vote, the disappointing result we face today has far different implications than we imagine,” he said.
Matthews was referring to the recent Election Day loss when Winchester voters on March 21 rejected an $11.5 million Proposition 2 ½ override by 293 votes, putting the School Committee budget in a very precarious situation.
Matthews said the vote carries real consequences for the schools and the committee’s responsibility now is to refocus “with urgency and transparency” because they will have to make significant cuts to the budget.
Earlier this year, the School Committee submitted a $76,270,570 budget to the town, an 8.3% increase over the fiscal year 2026 budget, knowing it would likely take a successful override for it to be approved.
That budget included funding for priorities such as mathematics interventionalists, expanded curriculum course selections, no increase in athletic, arts or co-curricular fees and expanded services for students with special needs, including adaptive physical education, all of which are now off the table.
That leaves a level services budget of 6.8% over FY26, which Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett said would be the norm in a typical year.
But this isn’t a typical year.
What now?
Finance and Operations Director Andrew Marron said the plan now is to roll the 6.8% budget back to a 5% increase, which means they need to make $2.3 million in cuts to the proposed override budget.
Hackett said it would go back to the budget subcommittee, which would then bring the recommended cuts to the entire board.
“And just to be clear, it’s not going to be easy to get there,” he said. “I also just want to say we have three full weeks left before April vacation, and then there’s April vacation, and then there’s Spring Town Meeting the Monday after vacation. So we have a short runway.”
However, Hackett said they’ve already done a lot of work just getting ready for the override election. The toughest part now, he said, would be making sure everyone understands what’s happening and working with the unions so they’re aware of what is going to be proposed.
Hackett said he also wanted to make it clear that there is a difference between positions eliminated and actual people losing their job. He said there will be attrition, as in retirements and long-term leave of absences and he plans to take full advantage of all those opportunities, but they won’t likely solve all the problems.
Hackett said their methodology, as always, is to protect the core, classroom teachers, classroom students, special education support and support services “and then we work from here out.”
The issue, he said, is that there is not a lot outside the core to cut, because “contrary to what some people may think,” they are lean.
Matthews believes that by the time the budget hits the floor of Town Meeting, having gone through the Finance Committee and other benchmarks, it may be even less than 5%.
School Committee member Stefanie Mnarajri said it would make no sense for the committee to bring forth a budget below 5% because it would never cover the School Department’s legal obligations, not only to its unions but also to students.
“There is pain built into that 5% and there are still a lot of hard decisions we’re going to have to make,” she said. “And it saddens me that we had such a fantastic meeting today talking about this great [literacy] program that we’re about to roll out, and now we need to figure out a way to support it and I don’t know if that 5% covers it.”
Hackett said he would never recommend a budget that annihilates or cuts a program.
“Our job is to make sure our kids have what they need with the resources that are available,” he said. “And so this is not an exercise trying to scare. We’re coming to you with what we think is the best budget we can provide that gets kids what they need, and it won’t be what we currently provide or what we were hoping for.”
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.
