08/14/2025 FINANCE COMMITTEE Minutes

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FINCOM-Regular Session August 14,2025 a. Presentation of additional information, explanations, and professional insight on behalf of the article Discussion on Special Education Reserve Fund (Article 2) Superintendent Michele Conners and Director of Finance Monica de la Hoya began the discussion by explaining the rationale for proposing Article 2, which would establish a Special Education Reserve Fund. Both o?icials emphasized the ﬁnancial uncertainties public schools face, particularly regarding out-of-district placements for special education students. These placements often come with unpredictable costs. In some cases, these can amount to $500,000 or more—funds that are not included in the school’s regular operating budget. Without a reserve fund, the school would have to request additional appropriations from the town. Massachusetts regulations allow districts, with dual approval from the Select Board and School Committee, to set aside up to 2% of their allocated budget into a Special Education Reserve Fund, which may only be used for special education expenses. Superintendent Conners and Director de la Hoya presented data to support this need. For example, in FY25, 13 students—primarily in the top third grade levels—require Extended School Year (ESY) services as speciﬁed in their IEPs. These students must attend school year-round due to the severity of their needs. Many are placed in private, public, or collaborative out-of- district settings, and related services such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, transportation, or even the presence of a nurse may be required. De la Hoya explained that while known expenses can be budgeted with reasonable conﬁdence, unexpected placements remain a signiﬁcant risk. The proposed reserve fund would allow the district to cover these unexpected costs without needing to return to the town for supplemental funding. De la Hoya clariﬁed that the reserve fund would be capped at 2% of the total school appropriation, with any operational surplus at the end of the ﬁscal year eligible for deposit into the fund, provided it does not exceed the cap. De la Hoya noted that the school department typically aims to budget as close to actual needs as possible. Greg McKelvey questioned how such situations were handled in the past, noting that he didn’t recall the School Committee requesting emergency funds. Monica responded that the demand has increased signiﬁcantly year after year across all districts, with COVID-19 being a contributing factor. She mentioned that while school choice previously helped balance the budget, those numbers have also declined.