Medford readies for 2027 school year with budget, policy approvals

School budget? Check. School handbook? Check. Medford is all set for the coming school year.

Director of Finance Noel Velez and Budget Analyst Gerry McCue were back before the School Committee on June 15, but with better news than the two have delivered to the body over the past few months.

The good news? Medford’s school budget is balanced. The better news? Some positions and programs cut out during the initial rounds of budget discussion have been put back.

The School Committee approved the final budget, which came in at $89,933,398 million. That was the amount officials were looking for when they submitted the budget to the administration and City Council earlier in the month, knowing there was a more than $2 million shortfall.

A long-time proponent of Medford’s schools even when she was a member of the City Council, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn had initially proposed a budget of $87,750,000 million. In the end, the city was able to put together an additional $1.350 million to add to the school budget.

“I want to thank the mayor and her team for allocating the additional funds,” Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Galusi. “We deeply appreciated the extensive work done by her and her team to renew these necessary funds for the schools. This year has been one of review and reflection and you will see what was consolidated, reduced and repurposed and what we were able to bring back.”

With the $2 million deficit cut down to a under $1 million, McCue and Velez were able to find the needed additional $833,398 savings in this year’s budget.

How did they do it? It came down to going through the budget with a fine-toothed comb, looking for extra savings where they could.

In the end, McCue and Velez were able to save an additional $962,568 by reducing a teacher from the vocational school program with low enrollment and moving that person to a grant-funded position and reducing staff at Medford High School in three positions already being vacated by retirements or non-renewals, among other items.

More savings — $139,350 —  were found in additional expenses such as reducing the budget for trash removal based on an annual spending analysis, reducing the vehicle budget because the district received state money for a new vocational program van and reducing supplies budgets to academic directors, among others.

If you’re doing the math, that’s an additional savings of more than $1.1 million.

What are the schools going to do with that savings? Adding back the following $268,520 in needs that were eliminated in one of the earlier budgetary rounds:

• A Medford High School art teacher

• A districtwide inclusion specialist

• Fully funding the originally proposed professional development plan

• Adding back $50,000 to contracted maintenance

The School Committee voted 6-0 to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget. Member Mike Mastrobuoni was absent from the meeting.

The handbook finally approved

It’s taken from mid-May through June 15 for the 2027 student handbook to be approved.

“Third time’s the charm,” Galusi said, bringing up the handbook before the committee.

While the School Committee has made improvements to the handbook during the last several weeks, editing and consolidating policies and procedures across the elementary schools, there’s been one hang up — recess.

School Committee member Paul Ruseau has stood firm on the topic of recess, arguing that kids shouldn’t be threatened with having recess taken away from them for minor infractions like not doing homework or misbehaving.

He said he’d heard of at least four incidents over this school year and wanted language in the handbook, addressing when it was and wasn’t appropriate to withhold recess from students as well as holding educators accountable at the elementary schools for when the action was taken.

Galusi said the following new language was added to the handbook at all four elementary schools: “recess is an essential component of a child’s physical, social and emotional development and will not be withheld as a disciplinary measure.”

Additional language goes on to say that “the loss of recess will require approval of the principal or assistant principal.”

Galusi said if the child exhibits unsafe behavior during recess or beforehand, recess may be limited or taken away so the child can compose themselves. And, she said, it’s now clear to everyone that not completing homework isn’t sufficient to take away recess, either.

Language to the academics honesty panel was also reviewed. Galusi said it is now clear to staff and administrators that panel members will be added annually and remain throughout that particular school year.

She said if a teacher is involved in a dispute with a student over an issue, a neutral party will be added, such as the principal or their designee. She said the involved student can also choose to be part of the discussion with a parent.

The School Committee approved both handbook policy measures 6-0.

Odds and Ends

The School Committee also approved the following in 6-0 votes:

• Updating language to the student travel policy.

• Adding language to the district’s AI policy that teachers are to use AI only to support teaching and learning.

• Re-setting the superintendent’s goal-setting schedule, whereby the superintendent sends goals over the summer for committee review and the official review being set for between May 1 and June 30.

Aaron Olapade amended the schedule to add periodic updates instead of leaving the schedule to only one set time.

• Providing the School Committee with input into a study being conducted by the city of possible sites around the community that may be able to provide additional space for any programs displaced by the building of a new high school.

• And last, but not least: additional summer meetings may be held online only on July 20 and Aug. 24, if needed.

The next officially scheduled School Committee meeting will be Sept. 14 at City Hall, beginning at 6:30 p.m.