Cuts made to proposed school budget

As talks about funding the Dartmouth Public Schools proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget continue, James Kiely, the assistant superintendent of finance operations, pitched a new proposal that would increase the budget by 5%.

While this increase is down by 1.85% from the initially proposed budget of 6.85%, or down by $1,022,000. This would still leave the school district with $278,309 unfunded.

Town Administrator Cody Haddad has previously stated that the town can only afford increasing the school budget by 4.5%, due to the needs of the town’s other departments.

To cut the budget down to $58,204,287, the district would cut a $65,000 kindergarten position at the Quinn School and use $100,000 from the Dartmouth Advocates for Addiction, Recovery, Treatment to fund after school programs instead of school choice funds..

The decision to cut a teacher position comes during a period of low kindergarten enrollment at the Quinn School, according to Superintendent June Saba-Maguire.

“We will be monitoring our kindergarten enrollment very closely … we expect [the numbers] to rise a bit, but not so dramatically, that we believe at this point in time that losing this position won’t cause the district great harm,” she said.

From the budget the district would also cut $365,000 from maintenance, $15,000 from music, and $107,000 from athletic programs, instead requesting level funding

Kiely said he initially included the maintenance increase to address “preventative and predictive maintenance efforts” in the district’s seven buildings, as the buildings are getting older and concerns will only grow.

“It’s imperative for us to try and stay ahead of those concerns,” he said.

By cutting the maintenance increase, Kiely said that the district will continue to be “reactionary and do our best.”

“I think we are, from my point of view anyway, we’re trying to work with the town as best as possible while advancing our district’s strategic plan as best as we can within the confines of our budget,” said School Committee member Chris Oliver. 

School Committee members will be voting on the proposed budget at their next meeting, which will be held on Monday, April 13.