Brookline School Budget Update: $2.8 Million Deficit

BROOKLINE, MA — The school department will only have to trim $2.83 million from the next budget rather than the $3.5 million the district estimated last year - on top of $2.5 million cuts the school district has planned over the past three years to balance the budget, according to Brookline Interim Superintendent Ben Lummis.

He told the school committee Thursday night that in the past few months the education department has been getting updated numbers from places they had used place-marker estimates - like Chapter 70 funds - and that's what accounted for the change.

But there's still a gap.

With this comes some good news, according to Lummis's presentation. It means limited and targeted adjustments, rather than the earlier predicted large scale cutting of staff, programs or services.

Lummis said some ways to do that might be to refocuse programs, cut or consolidate central office positions, consolidate small classes, and reconfigure the math support for K-8.

"Each school is likely to have a number of fractional FTE adjustments based on input from principals, curriculum coordinators, special education directors and senior leadership," one slide said.

Next up: The School Committee will vote on a bottom line budget of $126,112,627 just before the

Annual Town Meeting.

Watch the full Brookline School Committee meeting on YouTube, courtesy Brookline Interactive Group.

Previously:

School Budget Tight, Cuts Anticipated: Brookline

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).