The School Committee voted 6 to 3 Wednesday night to approve Superintendent Anna Nolin’s more than $296 million “level-services-plus” budget proposal, with some amendments, despite that number being millions of dollars more than Mayor Ruthanne Fuller has allotted the schools for the next fiscal year.

Fuller, along with Ward 4 member Tamika Olszewski and Ward 6 member Paul Levy, were the “no” votes.

Approving Nolin’s proposal does not mean the money for it is there, and Fuller has said the superintendent’s proposal isn’t feasible.

Olszewski called the vote “performative” given that the mayor has final say over the budget. But others were fine with that performance.

“Our only power right now is our vote,” said newly elected Ward 7 member Alicia Piedalue, who was sworn in just hours before putting forth the motion to approve Nolin’s budget. “And we can use it for an act of political will to support a very reasonable, and I think affordable, budget that does the least we can do to not slide backwards.”

The gap between that budget proposal and the mayor’s allocation stands at $2.1 million. What now?

“We are still actively investigating what the ramifications are, what the obligations are under both state law and city charter, when and if we would have to make certain decisions about having the matters match and the like,” School Committee Chair Chris Brezski said.

“I wish there was more money,” Fuller said. “I’m trying to be thoughtful, responsible, setting up NPS in the best way possible—not just for FY26 but for ’27 and ’28.”

She then told committee members they should shoot for the moon and vote for Nolin’s “thrive” budget, a 9 percent increase and the highest budget option on Nolin’s color-coded budget scale, if they were going to go to the City Council with a number that wasn’t feasible.

“With all due respect, I think we know how to vote, and your advice is not appreciated here,” Ward 3 member Anping Shen replied.

Olszewski said she supported Nolin’s budget as a concept but called the vote, and the whole budget process so far, a “very elaborate and very sad game of chicken” and noted that the mayor would have to be far more flexible with free cash than she’s ever been comfortable with to even consider Nolin’s budget.

“We are playing a game of chicken. But fundamentally, there’s only one person with a card here, and that’s the mayor,” Olszewski said. “Those odds are not good.”

Brezski said the committee would keep working to find funding for Nolin’s $296 million budget before throwing in the trowel with the mayor’s lower allocation and cautioned against assuming a lower allocation can be added to later.

“If we agree to $292 million, I can guarantee you will not see another cent come into this operating budget in the next year,” Brezski said. “I promise you that. So let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that we can vote this lower amount and we’ll find money down the road this year.”

One thing the mayor, the committee chair and the superintendent agreed on was the fact that there was a lot more work to do.

You can watch the entire meeting on NewTV’s Youtube Channel.