Staff, Programs To Be Cut In 2024 Newton School Proposed Budget

NEWTON, MA – Newton schools face a $4.9 million budget deficit in the next school year, along with cuts to staff and extracurricular activities in the proposed school budget for 2024.

Interim superintendent Kathleen Smith released the proposed budget – a whopping $271, 842,665 – on March 29.

"We knew going into this year that the budget would be tight, and the budget gap would likely be larger than the previous year," Smith said in her proposed budget.

While the 2024 budget includes a $9.77 million increase over last year’s 2023 budget of $262,070,208, Newton schools still face an $8 million shortfall in part due to the failed operational override.

At the town election on March 14, Newton voters approved overrides at Countryside and Franklin Elementary schools, but rejected a $9.2 million operational override, according to unofficial election results.

“The override would have provided the Newton Public Schools operating budget with an additional $4.5 million this year,” Smith wrote in the budget.

Lack of funding from the failed override, rising costs, changes in funding from the state, expiration of grant funding, use of one-time funds, and the rise in student needs all contributed to a $4.9 million budget gap for 2024, according to the budget proposal.

“Given the size of the budget gap, it simply will not be possible to maintain the same level of service the Newton Public Schools have provided to students in past years,” Smith said in the proposal.

As a result of the budget gap, four main areas will face reductions:

• Non-personnel expenses
• Administrative and operations (personnel and expenses)
• Extracurricular activities (athletics, fine arts, clubs)
• Classroom and school personnel

Specific reductions and impacts will:

• Reduce classroom teachers and aides, resulting in increased class sizes at all levels and reduced support in classrooms
• Reduce supplemental and enrichment programming and coordination, as well as instrumental offerings at the elementary level
• Reduce after school athletics and enrichment programs at the middle and high school levels
• Reduce administrative and operations positions throughout the district
• Reduce English Language Learner (ELL) staffing and support
• Reduce instructional software, segments of 1:1 device program, library and instructional technology
• Reduce professional development, staffing and administration in Student Services and social-emotional learning departments
• Increase fees

A group of Newton public school parents and community members have come together to create a petition to save the strings and orchestra programs at 15 Newton elementary schools, which face elimination in the proposed budget.

“This would be a devastating change that would impact the music program for many years in the future, as elementary school is such a formative time to build a foundation in music,” Betty Wang, a parent of two Newton public school students, wrote in an email about the proposed cuts to music programs.

Over 460 people have signed the petition as of Wednesday evening, and have voiced outrage over the proposed cuts.

“This is shocking and makes me very angry,” wrote Kenneth M. in the petition’s comment section.

Shaunna A. a music educator, wrote about music’s importance beyond just an extracurricular activity.

“When I joined the music program at my school it changed my life around and gave me so many opportunities that I never had before. It has been proven that studies in music have beneficial impacts on other aspects of children's lives,” she wrote in the petition comments section.

Another commenter, Ariel C., said “music education was essential for [her] emotional and mental health.”

Newton School Committee members will meet on April 12 to discuss the proposed budget.