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Winchester Public Schools are still navigating the aftermath of a budget decision made in March. Some parents, students and educators are experiencing financial pressures due to shifts in academic and student life.
“It’s not really one dramatic program disappearing,” Caitlin Hawkins Musto, co-president of the Lincoln School Parents Association and Precinct 4 Town Meeting member, said. “It’s the accumulation of fewer adults, larger classes, fewer interventionists, and there’s a lot more being asked of every single person who’s there.”
The district earlier this year proposed a $76.2 million budget that would have relied on $11.5 million in revenue generated from overriding Proposition 2 ½’s limits on taxes the town can levy.
But when that override failed in March by 293 votes, the School Committee approved a revised fiscal year 2027 budget of $73.5 million, a 4.4% increase over the 2026 budget.
“I’ve been doing this for knocking on 30 years now,” Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett said. “This budget is the hardest budget I’ve had to work with because of how tight we are.”
To fill the nearly $3 million budget gap, district leadership eliminated one half-time and 32 full-time positions, and increased athletic fees, among other changes.
“You can’t, frankly, cut 32 people without the impacts being felt,” School Committee Chair Timothy Matthews said. “That’s a terrible position to be in as a school district, and it’s something I feel terribly about as a School Committee member because this is not what any of us wants.”
Class sizes, student support
Some of the changes concern class size. In the last fiscal year, there were 100 total classroom sections at Winchester Public Schools, with an average class size of roughly 18 students. In comparison, in the new fiscal year, there are 94 total sections with class sizes averaging around 19 students.
Some increases have been steeper than others, like in Vinson-Owen Elementary School’s fourth-grade classes, which are now without a section and where the average class size went from roughly 16 students to about 24.
Hackett maintained classes still remain within the district’s class size guidelines, however.
“We’re not talking about class sizes of 28, 29, at grade two right? We have not [needed] to make the really drastic level of reductions that have that kind of impact on day-to-day classroom instruction,” she said.
But beyond class sizes, the absence of individual roles is felt across the district.
For instance, the schools implemented a half-time position math interventionist position at each elementary school last year, a role that supported students who weren’t meeting grade-level math standards, but did not have an individualized education program.
It was among the items eliminated this year.
“My son would benefit from [that] intervention and we don’t offer those right now,” Winchester Public School Parent Alexis D’Arcy said. “If we don’t have the processes to support children with a learning disability, those kids then think that the problem is with them. They don’t recognize that they’re within a system that isn’t functioning as well as it could.”
Hackett considered cutting the math specialist a “lost opportunity” as administrators were hoping to implement the teacher full time. While it was hard, they ultimately decided to make the cut.
This change leaves parents looking outside the district to supplement that lost support.
“And then there’s a giant equity concern if you don’t have those resources, or your family’s struggling,” Matthews said.
Some worry the staff and program reductions are impinging on the roles of those who are left.
“A principal’s primary duties are instructional leadership, managing resources, personnel, school safety, family engagement to name just a few,” said Stefanie Mnayarji, a School Committee member and parent. “Now, they are doing all of that plus filling the gaps needed, including serving pizza in the cafeteria.”
With fewer adults in the building, Mnayarji said administrators are “running on fumes,” and staff need more support.
Effects of the budget limitations are starting to become visible for students, too.
School Committee member John Bellaire said students who have wanted to take an advanced class at the high school aren’t able to because the classes are already at capacity.
“And we don’t have the money to hire another teacher and add another section [for] that class,” he said.
Athletic fees
Another tact administrators took in order to meet the budget requirements was raising athletics fees. While in the past, the base level fee to play a sport was $400, it is now $675 per sport.
Many parents seem pressured by these high fees. Bellaire said he foresees athletic enrollment dropping.
“My son had friends who are not playing sports because of the increase in them, because of the budget cuts,” said one Winchester parent who declined to be named due to fear of reprisal. “This is probably the greatest impact on the mental health of students at Winchester.”
Families may automatically qualify for a waiver of the athletic fee if they are also eligible for state subsidies, such as free or reduced-price lunch. Others experiencing financial hardship may also apply for a waiver.
“Of course there’s financial assistance available, but that requires for somebody to come forward, which can be a barrier,” Musto said. “Some people don’t want to come forward and ask for help, or maybe they’re not in the poverty gap, but they [still] can’t afford it.”
Hackett said Winchester Public Schools currently have some of the highest fees in the Middlesex League, made up of 11 other high schools, and nearing some of the higher fees statewide.
“We don’t ever want a family, a student, to not be able to participate in athletics, because they can’t afford it. So I don’t feel good about that," he added.
Tough times
For many residents, however, the harsh reality of personal budgets and high inflation outweighed the possibility of lost school programs.
“I think we live in a tough time, economically, right now,” Bellaire said. “I think people are concerned about what that tax burden [from an override] would mean to them and their families. Gas prices are more expensive, groceries are more expensive, and it wasn’t necessarily clear to people what we might lose without the override.”
For others, the district budget strain combined with economic pressures has made them cautious about enrolling their children in Winchester Public Schools.
“I started asking myself: if we’re going to spend so much on home and property taxes, primarily because we want our children to attend the Winchester Public Schools, how confident are we that the schools will continue to provide the education and resources we’re looking for?” parent Francesca Primeau said.
For now, the solution is ancillary services. But the administration is unclear what the future holds, especially without an override.
“If we have to go deeper next year… it is going to be felt,” Hackett said. “We are going to be cutting programs. Without question.”
Mnayarji, an attendee at a recent meeting with school administrators asked what parents could do to address this issue.
“With a quiver in her voice, one principal answered, ‘supporting an override,’” Mnayarji said.
Ava Ferriero is a journalism student at Boston University. This story is part of a partnership between Winchester News and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
