Brookline School Budget: Cuts Anticipated Amid Coronavirus Crisis

BROOKLINE, MA — Brookline public schools were already facing a financial crisis when the coronavirus pandemic began: Late last year officials said staff cuts might be on the horizon if the system couldn't close a severe budget gap.

Now the district is edging closer to making those cuts, including those to 12 full-time staff positions, but officials are not sure of the ultimate impact, although the superintendent has said the budget would be "severely" impacted.

That sentiment was echoed in a Select Board meeting on Tuesday.

"We're not in a normal year," Mary Ellen Dunn, deputy superintendent for administration and finance told the board. She noted that the department was already "pinching pennies" in dealing with an unpaid bill from 2017/2018.

Dunn told the Select Board the district was going to see a deficit in the $120 million-plus school budget for 2021.

Last fall, Interim Superintendent Ben Lummis told the School Committee that the rising cost of everything from salaries to program costs - and lower-than-anticipated revenue from the town’s 2018 override — meant a $3.5 million gap between revenue and expected expenses.

At the time, he raised an alert about further cuts and asked schools to make suggestions on areas that could be trimmed. But following pushback from families earlier this year, he dialed that back.

Read more: School Budget Tight, Cuts Anticipated || School Budget Update: $2.8 Million Deficit

Lummis outlined previous recommended cuts to the fiscal 2021 budget (estimated at $126 million earlier this year) and offered another recommendation to further trim $1.35 million to balance the district’s 2021 budget during the School Committee’s Finance Subcommittee last week.

Lummis recommended several cuts, include consolidating already small classes at Lawrence, Coolidge Corner, Pierce and Heath schools, eliminating four positions.

He recommended reducing student services, which would also cut 6.4 special education positions across the district, and eliminating 1.6 full-time staff in visual arts, world language and math specialist, based on enrollment and class sizes.

A number of Brookline parents pushed back earlier this year on the idea of cuts to the school staffing and voiced frustrations, questioning why no cuts were proposed to central administration and complaining about an overall lack of clarity.

The financial situation could change yet again because of the economic downtown, according to the interim superintendent's budget recommendation. If local non-property tax revenues go down, it could mean a continued budget deficit for the schools.

Lummis said his department will draft a COVID-19 contingency budget based on federal, state and town financial updates. A public hearing on cuts proposed already is scheduled for May 14.

Lummis did not immediately return request for comment.

Previously:

Brookline School Budget Update: $2.8 Million Deficit

2020 State Budget Includes More Than $22.7 Million

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).