Alan Ingram
Express correspondent
The Plympton School Committee has unanimously approved a $4.43 million operating budget for fiscal year 2026, successfully balancing the educational needs of Dennett Elementary School with the financial constraints of the town.
The vote, which took place during the March 24 meeting, represents the culmination of months of careful financial planning and collaboration between school officials and town leadership.
“We believe we’re at a place tonight where we have a budget that can support the needs of the students here at the Dennett, can maintain all of our staffing as we promised, and also meet the financial needs of the town as well,” said School Committee Chair Jason Fraser.
The total budget package includes $4,703,363 in expenditures, with $273,363 coming from anticipated circuit breaker special education reimbursements and anticipated grant funding. This leaves the town’s portion at $4.43 million.
Director of Finance and Operations Sarah Hickey presented the final budget figures after incorporating adjustments requested by the committee at previous meetings.
“If from that $4,703,363 we subtract out the anticipated $60,000 [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Federal Special Education Entitlement] Grant, $117,272 in anticipated circuit breaker, $32,091 in the 2025 [Rural Education Achievement Program Federal] Grant, $64,000 in the anticipated rural aid for next year, that would make the town operating budget $4,430,000,” Hickey explained.
The budget process this year was complicated by a chart of accounts conversion, making direct year-to-year comparisons more challenging than usual.
“This is the single year where we won’t be able to have side-by-side comparison of 24 and 25,” Hickey noted. “Next year the budget will be back out of the financial software, all of those sheets that you’re used to and you’ll be able to see the FY26, FY27 side-by-side comparisons with the percent increases.”
Committee member Jon Wilhelmsen expressed appreciation for the work done to reach the target figure but voiced concerns about the process.
“I know there was a lot of work today to try and get us to where we’re at, and I truly appreciate all that,” Wilhelmsen said. “It’s very difficult to be able to do the job on this side of the table, but you can’t look at the underlying numbers as it’s going along.”
The $4.43 million figure represents what appears to be an 11 percent increase over last year’s initial budget of approximately $4 million. However, Fraser pointed out that the school actually operated on about $4.25 million this year after addressing a $250,000 deficit that emerged by October.
If you base it off the $4 million to $4.4 million, it is an 11 percent increase,” Fraser explained. “But this year, to operate this building, we used $4,250,000. So our increase, if you take it from there to this, is a 4.25 percent increase.”
Wilhelmsen acknowledged the challenge this presents for town officials.
“To the town, it’s 11. And that’s the part that, you know, with working together with the town, we were able to get them to absorb it again,” he said. “This is the third year in a row that we’ve had to absorb these increases in derelict deficits. So, it’s just a challenge because the well is getting drier.”
The budget relies on $64,000 in anticipated rural aid for next year, based on Governor Healey’s budget proposal. Fraser expressed hope that rural aid might increase, potentially allowing for additional staffing.
“I’d like this committee to commit to is if we get a sizable increase there, that we come back to the table and we add additional aids to our staff here at the Dennett for next year,” Fraser said. “To help maintain the quality of education, but also to help keep kids in their home school instead of ending up not having the right amounts of supports here and having more kids go out of district as well.”
Earlier in the meeting, the committee approved the allocation of $144,000 in rural aid currently on hand. This includes $50,000 to supplement an HVAC earmark, $54,000 to address the current year’s deficit, and $40,000 to replenish the special education stabilization fund.“We would hold back $54,000 to fill what’s right now about a $49,000-$50,000 deficit for FY25,” Fraser explained. “If there’s any creep on that, we’d have a little bit of wiggle room.”
The committee also discussed the possibility of bringing some outsourced behavioral services in-house in the future. Currently, the district budgets approximately $53,035 for PACES services, which provide both in-school consultations and home-based support for students with special needs.
A meeting attendee raised the question of whether some of these services could be provided by existing staff or a new hire.
“I wasn’t sure if there was an opportunity to in-source some of the work and potentially get more benefit to the student population because of it,” he said.
Christine Marcolini, Student Support Coordinator, echoed this interest, asking if there might be “a way to kind of look at the bucket of money that we’re already budgeting for behavior consults, shift some of that over to having someone maybe part-time on staff that’s available to all students.”
While acknowledging the idea has merit, Special Education Director Christine Panarese noted several challenges, including finding qualified personnel willing to work in homes and determining whether a part-time or full-time position with benefits would actually save money compared to contracted services.
The committee also approved its meeting schedule for the 2025-26 school year before adjourning to executive session to discuss collective bargaining strategy with the Plympton Teachers Association.