Framingham Schools Seeks 3% Budget Increase For 2022

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The first draft of the fiscal 2022 Framingham Public Schools budget seeks a 3 percent increase over fiscal 2021, but is roughly the same amount as the request submitted during the budget process one year ago.

The administration's initial budget request is set at $147.5 million. Last April, the School Committee settled on a $147.3 million budget, but that was whittled down by Mayor Yvonne Spicer and the City Council to $143.2 million.

There are a range of factors driving the district's 2022 budget increase, according to Chief Financial Officer Lincoln Lynch, who presented the budget to the School Committee on Wednesday.

All six of the district's collective bargaining contracts expire in June and will need to be renegotiated. The district employs over 1,500 people, and salaries make up about 80 percent of the budget. The district is planning for a $1.8 million increase in salaries in fiscal 2022.

"Even small increases create larger overall increases to the budget, and then you have to look at it through the six different unions," Lynch said.

Chapter 70 aid, which comes from the state, is a big question. Due to the pandemic, Framingham's student enrollment dropped by 267 between October 2019 and October 2020. Since the state bases Chapter 70 aid off of enrollment, Framingham may only get about $280,000 more in 2022. The district got almost $6 million from Chapter 70 in 2021.

State aid makes up a major part of the budget. In fiscal 2021, $56.7 million of the schools budget came from the state, $86.4 million from the city.

District officials believe the enrollment drop is due, in part, to students either leaving the district or deferring the start of kindergarten due to the pandemic. Officials believe enrollment could bounce back in the fall, and possibly increase, leading to higher costs.

Chair Adam Freudberg asked what the district's projection for the incoming kindergarten class is, but neither Lynch nor Superintendent Robert Tremblay had those figures as of Wednesday.

At one point, Lynch's presentation was interrupted by District 7 School Committee member Tiffanie Maskell, who chastised ex officio School Committee member Mayor Yvonne Spicer for not appearing in the Zoom array. Maskell said the mayor needed to be on screen because each year Spicer "pull[s] all kinds of different things with us" with the budget.

Spicer responded that she had switched her screen to watch Lynch's presentation.

"I am fully present and watching and listening," Spicer said during the tense exchange. "My learning style is to focus on what is being presented."

Lynch said the district actually has a target to get the budget request down to $146.8 million. The district began fiscal 2022 planning with an initial budget request of $151.1 million.

The School Committee will discuss the budget in the coming weeks with approval expected on March 31. That product will then go to Spicer, who will make possible changes before presenting the entire fiscal 2022 budget to the City Council.

You can see Lynch's full budget presentation here.