Superintendent Anna Nolin presented her preliminary budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 to the School Committee Monday night, and the mayor has already said “no.”

Nolin is proposing a “level-services-plus” budget (maintaining existing services and adding a few things), and even with a no-frills plan, she’s asking for more than $292 million.

That’s a nearly $15 million increase over FY2025. About $9 million of that increase is for salaries, and $3 million goes to health care increases.

And on top of that, there’s a gap of more than $4.5 million separating what the district needs to maintain level services and what the mayor’s administration has recommended for NPS.

“We know that we live in a municipal ecosystem that provides many city services, and to that end, we feel that we have to balance the needs of our brother and sister city departments, and I recommend to you—despite my feeling that this is not the best budget we can have for children—this level-service budget for this year,” Nolin said.

The good

Nolin had collaborated with various school department leaders and school principals to figure out what was needed throughout the district, and the result was a Master List of about $18 million worth of items, which the central office would go through to try for “a more manageable number while moving forward to address the needs of the school system and build a budget that moves us from surviving to thriving.”

Last year, Nolin laid out a table of five budget models—from barebones to bountiful—and recommended (which the School Committee opted for) the middle option, called “Level Services Plus.” That’s when nothing is eliminated from the district and a few things are added. And she’s recommending the same for FY2026, but with some added things restored from the FY2024 budget cuts.

There are things to celebrate. The Education Stabilization Fund and Free Cash allocations have eased the stress on the budget that comes with inflation.

And, after collaboration with department heads, many department requests involved cost-neutral budget restructurings.

“For example, the Human Resources office has found efficiencies and ways to create better services at a lower cost and has been able to replace other services and retire subscriptions and things of that nature, making their complete restructure cost neutral to the system,” Nolin said. “So, too, has our English Language Learning Department.”

The bad

Rising costs, an increase in student needs and complexities and the loss of previous one-time sources of funds (like the American Rescue Plan Act) have combined to cause this budget crunch, Nolin said.

“In addition, the statewide landscape itself is underfunding our Circuit Breaker and special education transportation reimbursement, and Chapter 70 state-based education funding is not keeping promise with what was expected in recent budget, campaigns and promises under the Student Opportunities Act.,” she added.

The Fuller administration has recommended a $10.3 million increase for salaries and benefits. But NPS salaries and benefits will increase by $12.7 million, with $9 million of that covering just base salaries.

There’s also an expectation that a portion of a year’s budget will be set aside for the next year—a policy called “Carry Forward”—which many communities use to save money for specific goals. But Newton has been using it to balance annual budgets,” which is a volatile state to be in,” Nolin said.

The rising complexity of student needs is driven by reverberations from the COVID-19 pandemic. Students who started kindergarten during the COVID-19 remote-learning era are now in middle school, and high school students today spent a portion of their elementary school days in isolation. And those students have presented a host of new issues for educators and social workers to deal with.

“In addition to that, there’s inflation and substitute demand—which has been an unbudgeted true cost in the past—and more students unable to ride the yellow bus due to disability means we need specialized transportation, which has also come in at a contractually higher price,” she said, reminding the committee that the state is giving a lower-than-expected reimbursement for special education transportation.

Newton is not alone. Budget crunches and funding gaps are seen all over the state now that federal pandemic-related funding is gone and costs of services have spiked at a rate that far outpaces increases in Chapter 70 funding.

And communities haven’t been able to increase revenue to make up the difference, giving residents the choice between cutting school funding and approving a Proposition 2 ½ override.

“It’s not a one-year problem, and the pressures will be compounded in the years to come,” Nolin said.

And the ugly

The budget proposal comes with $1 million less than expected from the Education Stabilization Fund, and committee member Paul Levy requested an explanation, since that fund can only be used by NPS and the School Committee was told certain amounts would come in certain years.

That fund is dispersed by the mayor’s administration.

“The mayor will definitely speak for herself,” Nolin said, “but my understanding is that we published this in accordance with the understanding that you had, Mr. Levy, and the mayor has asserted that that is not her vision on that and that she has not approved that.”

Fuller said that, originally, the Stabilization Fund allotment for FY2026 was to be $3.9 million and it wasn’t until the budget was presented publicly that the amount was noted as $4.1 million. Fuller said she did not approve the $4.1 million but let it slide because “it was a rough year.”

“The multi-year forecast that was put into the NPS budget was a complete surprise to me,” Fuller said.

On a broader note, Fuller said that the city and school budgets combined will increase a total of $22.3 million in FY2026, so a $14.9 million increase for the schools would be too much.

Fuller noted the debt service the city has for school buildings and that the city already pays for school nurse salaries and benefits for support staff, among other expenses, and she listed the expense increases those things already represent.

“It is simply impossible for me to responsibly honor the request from the NPS administration for a $14.9 million increase in the NPS budget for next year,” Fuller said. “The decision on the increase for NPS of $10.3 million for FY26 did not come lightly, did not come easily, did not come without a tremendous amount of thought. The increase is based on the financial realities facing the entire city of Newton.”

Fuller added that the budget woes for Newton’s schools have been a long time coming.

“NPS has known—I would say not just for months, but for years—that the growth in revenues of the City of Newton is modest,” Fuller said.

As Nolin noted, this is just the preliminary budget proposal, and the budget process is ongoing. You can watch Nolin’s entire presentation online.

There will be a public hearing on the budget on March 19 at 6 p.m.