Braintree Town Council Committee Approves Mayor's Budget Proposal

BRAINTREE, MA — The Braintree Town Council's ways and means committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend Mayor Charles Kokoros' $146.6 million town budget proposal for fiscal year 2022.

The committee spent much of its last three meetings discussing the school budget, which sits at $75 million, including federal aid. If approved, school officials will eliminate 28 jobs — and 25 of them are teaching positions.

Most of the teacher cuts are at the elementary school level and include reading and math specialists. Though three math specialist jobs were saved when Kokoros added another $377,000 to the school budget. The money became available when Kokoros transferred it from a fund originally set aside to pay future retirement benefits.

Superintendent Frank Hackett told the committee the $377,000 is more than what the district needs to save the three teachers' jobs, but school officials haven't decided how to spend the rest of the money.

Hundreds of parents and teachers have called for the district to find a way to save more teachers' jobs. They've held two protests outside town hall demanding Kokoros use more of the town's coronavirus pandemic relief money and "rainy day" funds to prevent the cuts.

Hackett has repeatedly said dipping into more federal funds will only hurt Braintree's school budget more next year. He said everything would be on the table for cuts, including academic programs and athletics.

Committee members said they don't want to see teacher jobs cut, but the money isn't there to save them. District 3 Town Councilor Donna Connors said the town needs to find a way to increase revenue to avoid future budget shortfalls.

"This is a long-term problem, and it will take a while to fix," she said.

The budget is scheduled to come to a vote before the full council at its meeting on June 1. Prior to the vote, Councilors Meredith Boericke and Julia Flaherty will host a community forum, where residents can ask questions about the budget. The meeting is set for 7 p.m., Tuesday, and the link for the meeting can be found here.

See the proposed town budget for Braintree here.