The School Committee on Thursday got a look at fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget requests for four departments: special education, buildings and grounds, curriculum and instruction, and central office.

Director of Student Services Jessica Beattie outlined her department’s budget of $18,474,504, an increase of 10.1%. It reflects increases of salaries ($821,000) and expenses ($878,000) before new requests and supports programs from pre-K to ages 18-22.

Beattie is requesting a severe/intensive special education teacher at Hopkins School. She said adding the teacher will provide the necessary coverage in the intensive program, which has 8-10 additional students joining in the 2026-27 school year. The cost is $77,050.

The other requests are to fund paraprofessionals at $40,000 and $32,000 (Hopkinton Middle School and Marathon School) who were approved in a previous school year and whose costs must be absorbed this fiscal year.

She said most of the expense increase is because of special education transportation and out-of-district tuitions.

Beattie explained part of the increase is from transportation costs for more in-district students and out-of-district students to locations outside a 20-mile radius. The increase also is from nursing needs for out-of-district students and utilization of third-party providers when the current out-of-district vendor (ACCEPT) is unable to source the route.

She said the out-of-district tuition is up by $534,000. In addition, the district was asked to absorb the special education reserve fund for FY 27. It will use that money, IDEA 240 grants and circuit breaker reimbursement and adjustments to cover tuition costs.

Other expenses are a continuation of safety care training during the summer, which results in less disruption in September and October. Otherwise, staff must be pulled out and substitutes brought in to work with students.

Additional custodian requested

Tim Persson, director of buildings and grounds, presented a preliminary budget for FY 27 of $4,467,802 or a 4.9% increase over FY 26. That total reflects an increase of $207,899 in expenses and salaries.

Persson said the district’s infrastructure includes more than 120 acres of land and 700,000 square feet of buildings to maintain and clean.

Indoor maintenance includes preventative measures and regular maintenance of equipment such as boilers, HVAC units and building hardware. Custodial work involves cleaning facilities such as restrooms, gymnasiums, classrooms and auditoriums, while grounds includes 15 game/practice fields, multi-purpose turf fields and upkeep of equipment such as tractors and mowers.

For FY 27, Persson requested an additional custodian, which amounts to an increase of $56,573. He said it would increase the evening staff from two to three custodians at Elmwood School.

He said looking ahead to the Charleswood School, the idea is to cut the square footage each custodian must cover. As an example at the high school, there are five evening custodians for 200,000 square feet. Persson anticipates seeking an additional custodian when the new school opens in a few years. That would bring the staff to four to cover a 175,000-square-foot building.

On the expenses side, Persson said there is an increase of $52,862 or 2.5% to cover HVAC preventative maintenance contracts and the cost of grounds services materials.

The account for repair and maintenance equipment increased for all five schools by $20,561. The custodial supplies account increase was $8,725 and the administration building lease increased by $23,576.

Persson also spoke about the extraordinary maintenance budget, noting a proposed increase of $22,535 or 12%. The total is $204,000.

He said it made sense to put extraordinary maintenance on hold at Elmwood and Hopkins, as both have ongoing construction projects.

Persson said replacements/maintenance would be kept at a “functional” level, and buildings would be “safe and clean” without investing extra money into them.

The situation at the middle and high school is different, where the requests are $52,000 and $89,000, respectively. The middle school items include kitchen refrigeration and restroom fixture, ceiling and partition replacements.

Using revolving funds, other extraordinary maintenance includes replacement of cracked, deteriorated flooring in classrooms and replacing classroom whiteboards.

At the high school, those funds would offset requests including art room sink replacement, flame retardant spray for auditorium stage curtains and additional office space in administration. District-wide, items are two mowers for grounds maintenance and electrical/motor repair for a well pump.

Addition of part-time ESOL teacher requested

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Jeff LaBroad presented a budget proposal of $1,990,330, which is 3.8% or $73,299 over FY 26.

He said the total salary budget is $1,610,330, up 0.2% or $3,299 before any requested increases.

The budget includes the addition of a 0.5 full-time equivalent English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher to support language acquisition at the pre-K and K levels.

The expense budget proposed has an increase of $70,000 and $380,000 total.

LaBroad explained that curriculum expenses ($50,000) include textbook replacements in geometry, advanced placement pre-calculus and advanced placement biology as well as a renewal of social studies and world languages textbooks/subscriptions for hybrid programs.

He anticipates adoption of an ESOL curriculum and is seeking $20,000 in expenses for supplies and instructional materials in ESOL programming.

Salary reserve, transportation impact central office

Superintendent Evan Bishop spoke about a preliminary central office budget of $5,480,580, which is 8.6% over FY 26 and $435,627. Personnel services were up by $248,156 or 13.3%, while expenses increased by $187,471 or 5.9%.

The central office budget includes the salary reserve for negotiated cost-of-living increases, teacher lane change estimates, early retirement and longevity pay.

“The [increase] is driven by people,” Bishop said, adding that no new personnel are being requested for the central office.

Contractual increases for transportation comprise most of the expense increase. Most expense accounts are level-funded or reduced.

Bishop noted that 3,531 students (85%) are registered to use the regular day bus transportation, which is a high percentage compared to the past.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Susan Rothermich said no new buses would be added to the fleet in FY 27.

Rothermich said the district usually gets only one bidder for transportation, a statewide problem, while a driver shortage is more of a national problem.

Future meetings addressed

Chair Kyla McSweeney announced the vote on the school calendar for 2026-27 would take place at the Dec. 11 meeting. The School Committee meeting’s date was changed because of the Special Town Meeting on Dec. 4.

Bishop noted the overall school budget proposal would be presented to the Select Board at a joint meeting on Dec. 18.