Two years after residents approved an $8.4 million override, rising costs and limited projected revenue have left Belmont Public Schools preparing for a tense balancing act in the upcoming fiscal year 2028 budget.
“There continues to be a tension between available resources and needs,” Superintendent Jill Geiser said in an email to The Voice.
Discussions around revenue — which funds both the municipal and school budgets — will begin in the fall. According to Warrant Committee Chair Paul Rickter, the upcoming fiscal year 2028 budget is the last the town can do with its current revenue without looking for an override.
“It’s challenging, because there’s always expectations and people’s standards … for what they want for public services [and] what they want for school services, and at the same time…there’s only so much revenue that’s available,” Rickter said.
Following the 2024 override, Belmont created a Multi-Year Budget Advisory Committee (MYBAC), which was charged with guiding the Select Board in budget forecasting to project revenues and expenses. In short, the committee helps create a financial roadmap for the town.
MYBAC’s framework has been the town’s guiding principle since the override — and the reason some town officials say Belmont has been able to keep its head above water thus far.
“This approach has created a real chance the 2024 override will last an extra year, which reflects the work done by the town on behalf of the taxpayers,” Select Board Chair Taylor Yates said in a statement.
Emphasis on Schools
According to Rickter, the town has historically pushed more of its revenue to funding the schools, a trend he said is likely to continue into the fall.
“I think that’s always been sort of a conscious decision, because of the importance of education. In Belmont, public education is something that is known as a draw,” he said. “People want to move to Belmont, so we want to make sure that schools are getting as much as we can justify.”
Though the school’s revenue allotment won’t be decided for a few months, Geiser said the district’s focus will be on developing a budget that avoids reductions, determining where resources and staff need to be shifted, and identifying ways to sustain the current in-district programming. In the past two years, the district has added additional programs for special education that Geiser said she hopes to expand in the future.
According to Geiser, the anticipated decrease in available funds will leave “very little to build programming.”
Moriarty said the school committee and district leadership want to invest in social-emotional programs, similar to the high school’s “bridge program” that was cut several years ago due to budget constraints. The program was designed to support students returning to school after a long-term hospitalization.
“People have been really happy to see the investments that we’ve made in the in-district programming, and I think people want to continue to see that we are supporting that,” Moriarty said.
As Belmont looks ahead, Rickter said the town is far from the only municipality facing budget concerns amid skyrocketing healthcare costs and revenue constraints.
“It’s tough everywhere. We’re not alone,” he said. “I suspect that there are cities and towns that look at Belmont with some envy.”
Contract Impacts
Even with the emphasis on the town’s school system, there is still a struggle to cover growing costs with the revenue allocated each year. In May, the Belmont Education Association and Belmont School Committee ratified contracts for all four bargaining units after a year and a half of negotiations. The union agreed to a 2.3% cost-of-living adjustment for teachers — a percentage lower than some other teacher unions in Massachusetts have accepted over the past few years, Moriarty told the Warrant Committee on May 27.
“To be honest, I’m still really thankful that the union worked with us on those contracts because if we had settled higher, I think we’d be looking at reductions somewhere, whether those were staffing or programming,” Moriarty said to The Voice.
Other cities and towns in Massachusetts have seen significant education budget deficits heading into the current fiscal year, often resulting in layoffs and staff reductions. This year, Lexington Public Schools laid off 11 teachers to balance the budget.
Following the override, Moriarty said the district, along with town departments and the select board, followed the guidance of MYBAC to help keep it on course.
“I don’t know that there’s any magic to it,” she said. “I think we’ve just tried to be really fiscally responsible with our budget. Our finance subcommittee has worked hard around that, as well as the district.”
