LOWELL — Kate Keefe, a community school manager at Lowell High School, spoke during the public budget hearing of the School Committee on Saturday to make a direct appeal to the body: Please don’t cut my job.
“I think everybody realizes that tough decisions need to be made this budget season,” Keefe said. “With that said, I’m here to advocate for the district to fund the community school position at the high school.”
The position had been funded through federal grants and COVID-relief funds in recent years, but is not currently included in the district’s $257 million fiscal 2025 budget. It’s one of dozens of positions — including paraprofessionals, tutors, curriculum support staff and a range of mental health, behavioral and social work positions — that are being cut due to what Superintendent of Schools Liam Skinner described as an “unusual” budget season.
“Funding for our school district is very healthy and at the same time we must reduce spending,” Skinner said.
Chapter 70 state aid to the district has been increasing in recent years, boosted by the Student Opportunity Act, which added $30 million to the fiscal 2024 budget and is contributing a further $14 million for fiscal 2025. That funding, Skinner said, is stable and set to increase in further increments through fiscal 2027.
“Despite this otherwise positive outlook, at the moment we are forced to make budget cuts due to the end of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program,” Skinner said.
ESSER provided three years of post-COVID relief and accounted for $28 million of the district’s fiscal 2024 budget, what Skinner described as the “good times,” during Saturday’s hearing.
“Though healthy, our fiscal 2025 budget cannot sustain all of the projects, staffing and programs our ESSER-supplemented fiscal 2024 budget afforded us,” he said. “We do need to make some cutbacks. That is unfortunate and that is painful.”
Besides positions, the ESSER fiscal cliff hits the district across the board, impacting supplemental educational trips and tours, recruitment, web services, supplies, stipends, staff events and outside contracts.
The vast majority of the School Department’s budget is in positions, and Skinner said every effort was being made to avoid laying off staff. He noted that the budget direct funded the district’s 28 schools first.
“We’re restructuring Central Office and looking at that as an opportunity to make savings while continuing to improve services,” Skinner said.
The district also eliminated any funding for facilities. Ten million dollars of ESSER funds was allocated for facilities in the 2024 budget, but no money is being allocated from the School Department for facilities for next year, such as districtwide HVAC investments.
At Wednesday night’s regular School Committee meeting, Paul Georges, president of the United Teachers of Lowell, said facilities funding should be the responsibility of the city and not the School Department, and he urged the school administration to fight harder to hold city leaders accountable for maintenance and repairs to district buildings.
“Whether [the money] comes from ESSER or it comes from Chapter 70, it still results in fewer dollars that we can use to help our neediest kids,” he said. “I understand that we all want to get along, but it’s costing us. It’s costing our kids and it’s costing our teachers. Make sure we’re not paying for the sins of a failing infrastructure of the city.”
Chief Financial Officer Billie Jo Turner was not present at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, or the School Committee’s Wednesday and Saturday meetings, but her work was questioned repeatedly by several speakers and committee members.
“I thought Billie Jo Turner would be here tonight to answer some of these questions,” Georges said when asking for clarification on whether a memorandum of understanding exists between the city and the School Department on financial responsibilities between the two entities.
Turner’s name resurfaced during Saturday’s meeting. Committee member Dave Conway asked Skinner why Lowell High Head of School Michael Fiato’s salary was jumping $23,000 during a fiscal emergency.
Skinner clarified that the 2024 budget figure for Fiato’s salary was wrong, listing it as $146,376, when it was actually budgeted for $165,000. The budgeted increase to almost $169,000 between 2024 and 2025 represented salary adjustments built into his contract.
“Some of the budget figures are based on historical precedents,” Skinner told the committee Saturday. Members seemed taken aback that some of Turner’s historical accounting figures may not be accurate.
Last month, the district released a statement that Turner would resign on June 30, at the conclusion of this fiscal year. Her 2022 contract, which was to have run through June 30, 2025, showed a beginning salary of $176,390.50, with annual 2.25% raises.
“Ms. Turner, a Lowell native and LHS graduate, said she is planning to relocate to live closer to her children,” said Jennifer Myers, a spokesperson for the district.
Given her repeated and unexplained absences, it is not clear what Turner’s current employment status is.
The committee voted to put several positions in the suspense account, meaning they would be considered separately from approved budget categories.
Saturday’s public hearing is one of several that take place prior to the final budget being voted on by the committee.