Schools Seek 5.65% Budget Jump, Yet Details Hard to Find

(Update: At 4:37 p.m., Jan. 25, an itemized fiscal-year 2024 budget document was posted to the district website. Readers will need to judge for themselves if it is helpful for understanding the budget, especially when compared to examples of other high-performing districts that have been provided below.)

The Medfield School Committee public hearing for the fiscal-year 2024 budget will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, yet at the time of this writing (3:15 p.m., Jan. 25), the complete budget could not be found on the district website.

Massachusetts General Law states: "Prior to such public hearing said committee shall make available to the public at least one copy of said proposed budget for a time period of not less than forty-eight (48) hours either at the office of the superintendent of schools or at a place so designated by said committee.

The day before a public hearing that involves significant financial detail related to a 5.65% budget increase request, the only applicable document available on the Medfield district website on the school budget page is a 10-slide presentation file.

In a Jan. 24 e-mail sent to parents/guardians (approximately 50 percent of town population), it was stated, "Supporting documents* will be found here" pointing citizens to the School Committee documents page on the website. However, according to the footnote (*): "documents might be added to the file until the time of the meeting." No files had been uploaded at the designated location at the time of this original writing. (In the past, detailed files have been added minutes before the start of a meeting.)

It is unclear if a hard-copy budget document is publicly accessible in Central Office, but citizens also have the legal right to seek out and review the document in person.

According to various Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) training materials, a school budget document is not the same as a bare-bones PowerPoint presentation, and should be somewhat similar to information provided in the annual report sent to Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (The 2021 Medfield report was not found on the district website but obtained from DESE.)

These area districts provide a sense of how fiscal year 2024 budget information has been presented electronically to taxpayers:

Needham

Westwood

Wellesley

Budget Questions to Ask?

In preparation for any school budget hearing, MASC offers a list of about 30 sample questions that School Committee members and citizens can ask.

For example:

• Which cost centers of our budget are growing?
• Which cost centers are shrinking?
• What impact will this budget have on classroom enrollment (by grade, school, subject)?
• Are there services being added or cut?
• What impact will the budget have on students, and in particular, vulnerable populations?
• Is this budget predicated on charging fees?
• Does this budget include the use of revolving funds?

Government mandates also require that districts report on use of pandemic-related ESSER III grants, so school budget hearings often include that information, as well. (ESSER: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief).

Historically some districts have held the mandated Inter-District School Choice public hearings prior to or during annual school budget hearings. Medfield typically waits until June.

Districts will sometimes consider School Choice at times when their schools are experiencing a sizeable drop in enrollment since it allows a self-determined number of tuition-based seats (no minimum required) can be opened up to public school students from other Massachusetts communities. Doing so can help to prevent teacher layoffs and/or elimination of elective classes.