The Silver Lake Regional School Committee received a sobering budget presentation Feb. 5 outlining $586,000 in reductions—including staff layoffs—needed to maintain a 2.5% increase for fiscal year 2027, while simultaneously advancing a $700,000 capital stabilization fund that would repurpose expiring debt payments to address $50 million in facility needs.
Superintendent Jill Proulx and outgoing Director of Finance and Operations Sarah Hickey presented the district’s FY27 budget proposal, which calls for a $42,360,551 budget—a 2.5% increase over the current year’s $41,660,551 budget, plus the additional $700,000 line item for the stabilization fund.
“We scrubbed the budget and made sure that we eliminated anything that we could before considering reduction in force,” Proulx told the committee, describing multiple meetings with building principals and central office staff to identify cuts.
The $586,000 in proposed reductions includes unspecified staff positions, stipend eliminations, supply cuts, and increased unemployment costs. According to the presentation, 57% of the district’s budget goes toward payroll, with fixed costs comprising 15% and health insurance increases estimated at 10%.
High School Principal Michaela Gill warned that the cuts would directly impact educational offerings. “It would certainly impact class sizes. It would impact what we could offer,” Gill said. “It actually might impact some of the honor and AP classes that we provide, because we would need to make sure that we remain in compliance so that all of our classes remain inclusive.”
She added that stipend position reductions would eliminate clubs and activities that “hook” students into the high school experience. At the middle school, Principal Becky Couet indicated that seventh-grade elective exploratory classes would become difficult to sustain, though class sizes would initially remain stable—until further cuts forced them to “increase tremendously.”
Much of the discussion centered on the proposed $700,000 stabilization fund, which would use money freed up by the expiration of debt payments on the middle school and high school construction projects. Currently, the three member towns—Halifax, Kingston, and Plympton—collectively pay approximately $1.3 million annually in debt service, which drops to $657,895 in FY27.
Committee member Jason Fraser explained that a recent facilities assessment identified more than $50 million in needed repairs across district buildings, with engineers warning the work must be completed within 10 years—or escalate to an estimated $73 million. “We have zero dollars for a capital plan,” Fraser emphasized. “Not a single cent.”
He detailed presentations made to the Plympton and Halifax boards of selectmen, where officials acknowledged the plan’s merit but expressed concern about their towns’ fiscal capacity. “Jonathan Selig literally said, ‘it’s brilliant, it’s a no-brainer. I don’t know if we can do it, even though I know we would regret it in the future,'” Fraser recounted of the Halifax meeting.
The stabilization fund sparked debate among committee members. Jeanne Coleman challenged the decision to make staff cuts while simultaneously proposing capital funding. “The staff cuts to put aside money for capital planning doesn’t sit well with me right now,” she said, noting that the $700,000 currently belongs to the towns’ debt exclusion vote, not the school district.
Committee Chair Gordon Laws pushed back, noting that Halifax officials had complained last year when the district avoided reductions by using $1.2 million in excess and deficiency funds. “There were various entities in Halifax that were unhappy with our approach last year,” Laws said. “They felt that the failure to do so put additional burden on them…that it was through unsustainable means with E&D, and that it was in many ways fundamentally irresponsible.”
Fraser defended the decision not to use this year’s $809,358 E&D balance to offset reductions. “I am absolutely against using it this year to supplement the operating budget. I think you said it well when you said the situation we were facing last year was much more dire,” he told Laws, referencing the potential for much larger layoffs proposed in fiscal 2026.
Fraser also emphasized that the $700,000 annually would not fully address the $50 million capital need—at that funding level, it would take 56 years. However, the stabilization fund would allow the district to replenish its E&D reserves to the statutory maximum of 5%, providing emergency capital flexibility and enabling pursuit of additional warrant articles in the future.
Coleman ultimately requested that administration prepare two budget scenarios for presentation to the towns: the proposed 2.5% increase with $586,000 in cuts and the $700,000 stabilization fund, and an alternative “level service” budget that would restore the cut positions, which Hickey estimated would require a 3.7% increase.
“Unless we were to talk about a three-town approach towards an override,” Coleman said, noting that multiple neighboring districts face similar or worse fiscal crises: Whitman-Hanson’s “situation”, Duxbury’s failed override after cutting nearly 20 staff members, and Abington’s $1.2 million shortfall requiring 30 position reductions.
The committee directed Hickey to prepare both budget versions for Fraser to present to the three towns’ boards of selectmen, with feedback to inform the district’s March budget vote. Mark Guidoboni suggested administration also examine “efficiencies” such as having coordinators teach one course to potentially save teaching positions—strategies the district has employed in past budget crunches.
The budget assessments presented Wednesday show varying impacts across the three towns, driven by enrollment shifts and the structure of debt payments. Halifax would see a 1% assessment increase, Kingston 3.4%, and Plympton 8%—though Plympton’s higher percentage reflects a zero-increase last year and significant student population growth. When combined with each town’s elementary school budgets—which have not yet been voted—the presentation showed total education costs would rise at different rates across the three communities.
The assessment presentation also included a request for four business department positions totaling approximately $300,000 that are not currently included in the shared cost budget: a budget analyst, grants manager, accountant, and full-time treasurer. Guidoboni argued that a grants manager could potentially generate revenue exceeding the position’s $70,000 cost by securing additional grant funding.
In other business, the committee approved exercising year seven of its transportation contract with First Student, which will increase costs by 4.51% in FY27—a rate Coleman called “a no-brainer” compared to the 10-15% increases other districts are experiencing when rebidding contracts. The committee also approved course description updates for the high school’s grade 9 wellness program and middle school science curriculum aligned with updated state frameworks.