Framingham Schools Budget Approved At Slightly Higher $148.2M

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The Framingham School Committee has approved the district's proposed $148.2 million fiscal 2022 budget, slightly higher than the amount proposed at the beginning of March.

On March 4, district officials presented a $147.5 million budget to the School Committee, which was about the same as requested for the fiscal 2021 school year. The approximately $600,000 increase over the last month comes from adding new positions and anticipated infrastructure costs.

The district will add back a Latin teacher to preserve that language program, and will hire a physical therapist. Those two positions increased the budget by about $36,000.

But a much larger $558,794 increase was added to pay for anticipated utilities and maintenance at the Farley building. MassBay Community College is reducing its use of the building, and beginning this summer a number of Framingham Public Schools departments will move into Farley — largely a reassembly of departments that used to live at the Perini building, plus the district's Parent Information Center.

READ: Framingham Schools Seeks 3% Budget Increase For 2022

Following the School Committee's Wednesday vote, the FPS budget will go to Mayor Yvonne Spicer, who will integrate it into the larger fiscal 2022 city budget. The Framingham City Council will get final say over the budget before the end of the fiscal year in June. Last spring, Spicer and the City Council reduced the district's $147.5 million budget request down to $143.2 million.

At the beginning of the year, Framingham Chief Financial Officer Mary Ellen Kelly asked the district to keep the budget increase at 2.5 percent or lower. But the $148.2 million request is about 3.48 percent higher than last year. FPS finance director Lincoln Lynch said the higher increase was due to "an increase in special education costs, utilities and just the natural [cost of living adjustments] and steps."

Neither Spicer nor Kelly were at the School Committee's Wednesday meeting to answer questions about what the larger increase might mean further into the budget process.