School Committee approves 6.7% increase for FY25 preliminary budget

Despite the schools’ original preliminary budget seeing an approximate 10% increase for Fiscal Year 2025, the School Committee unanimously voted at its Thursday, Dec. 21 meeting to approve the district’s second option, which is a 6.73%, or $2.25 million, increase over the FY24 budget.

Due to the loss of American Rescue Plan Act funding and students at the high school level, the effects of inflation and the lack of town revenue, the district believes an increase is necessary to meet its financial needs for FY25.  

At a previous meeting, held Thursday, Dec. 7, Superintendent of Wareham Public Schools Matt D'Andrea said the actions necessary to make this million dollar cut possible would be to eliminate 20 staff positions. 

At the latest meeting, D’Andrea said the cut “would be very impactful.”

He added, “We are currently working on reducing that through retirement savings — through attrition as people leave. We're looking very closely at those positions and looking at alternatives to hiring someone else and we'll continue that effort to find savings.”

However, he said this budget will most likely change when the district knows more about what funding it will receive from the state, which will most likely be in January.

Some School Committee members voiced resistance toward approving the cut of the original preliminary budget. 

School Committee Chair Kevin Brogioli said while he’s “not in great favor” of the million dollar cut, he highlighted how everyone knew that the American Rescue Plan Act funding was only a temporary fix. 

Brogioli said, “I remember saying, ‘We know we're getting this now. We know down the road we're going to have to account for that,’ and that accountability is coming now.”

School Committee member Geoffrey Swett likened the American Rescue Plan Act funds to a “Band-Aid.” 

Swett said, as a member of the budget subcommittee, they have made plans on how to achieve the million dollars in cuts as well as plans to cut more if necessary as the town may only be able to provide an additional million dollars.

“We're not finished with this problem and that's kind of a discouraging thing to think about because this is going to be very painful,” he said. “I am going to reluctantly vote for this. I know it's going to result in things that we don't want to do, and I'm just hoping the next step is not even worse.”

He added, “So I encourage you to vote for it, but the pain may not be over.”