2025 Budget Battle
What Happened?
At Town Meeting April 29, 2024, the reasonable UNDER guideline 2025 CCHS budget presented by our School Committee and Superintendent was PASSED by a "wide margin".
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Background: The FinCom 2025 guideline (a recommendation) for our Schools was a 3.26% increase, in a 3% inflationary environment (a flat budget). After cuts and a lot of work by Dr. Hunter and her team, CCHS came in under this guideline number, at 3.08%. However an enrollment shift (traditionally not included in the Guideline calculation) meant less money from Carlisle and moved the CCHS budget total just $120K over, on the total amount.
The FinCom recommended a NO vote at Town Meeting on the CCHS budget, and the LWV and Select Board agreed with this position.
Also note: Generally speaking, the "tone and tenor" of FinCom meetings with the SC and or Superintendent were acrimonious, with interruptions and "talking over" the Superintendent common. Dr. Hunter referenced this in a memo, expressing her frustration with the lack of support. If you watch this 2/15 meeting, you will see the FinCom Chair Parashar Patel open by unexpectedly presenting slides depicting the schools in a negative light. Some have commented that this is well-outside the purview of the FinCom Chair.
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As reported in the Concord Bridge: At Town Meeting, Regional School Committee chair Tracey Marano said her board had presented a fiscally responsible, level-service budget.
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“We’ve made cuts to the budget already, including reduction of seven full-time teachers and tutors,” she said. “We have looked at every line item, and I ask you tonight to please vote ‘no’ on the amendment proposed by the Finance Committee.”
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