Seekonk School Budget Talks Continue

With four weeks to go before the Spring Town Meeting, the Seekonk School Committee is working on their FY’27 budget.

The committee will meet on Monday to finalize a number to present to the voters on May 11.

Before their joint meeting with the Select Board on April 8, the school committee voted on a budget with a 3.95 percent increase.

The school department had initially proposed a 4.61 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. Town officials are unwilling to allow for more than a 2.5 percent increase, noting town departments would be negatively impacted, including the Police and Fire departments, as well as the Department of Public Works.

Superintendent Rebecca Kidwell outlined the consequences of the loss of teachers and the impact on class sizes. Several course offerings will no longer be available as well.

“Anyone who says there is more fat to keep cutting, is not looking carefully at how deep cuts have already gone into schools,” Kidwell said. “There are factors impacting our budget that are beyond our control and they are substantial.”

School committee chair Robert Gerardi noted 27 positions have been cut in the last few years.

“I just want to explain, there’s been a huge disparity in the last few years,” Gerardi said. “Everybody else is treated fairly, the schools have not been treated fairly at 2.5 percent.”

Town Administrator Shawn Cadime said a combination of CARES (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act and ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds were given to the schools to pay expenses related to the new turf field at the high school and Aitken construction.

“I understand the frustration and I understand the passion, to say you’re not receiving your fair share is just wholly inaccurate,” Cadime replied. “I understand, education’s expensive, public safety is expensive, we can go back to property taxes, if we don’t have the staffing or the policing for this community, I don’t know who wants to move into Seekonk.”

Cadime noted the increase in costs for public safety.

“It’s just outside our control,” Cadime continued. “We’re starting to compete with other communities to retain the staffing, the employees that we need, to be able to operate.”

“I am not in favor of cutting any of the town (department) budgets,” said Select Board Chair Gary Sagar. “If we get any additional Chapter 70 money, I would vote to forward it to the schools without any reduction.”

“I provided data that showed that for the last three years the town administrator has not projected revenue accurately and during this time those inadequate projections have resulted in a corollary effect of a sharp decrease in the school budget and sharp increases in the reserve funds,” Gerardi said via e-mail Saturday. “I made it clear that I believe the town administrator can properly project the revenue in the upcoming budget to adequately fund the schools.”