Woburn school committee sends $99.75 million FY27 operating budget to public hearing after members press for clearer staffing and funding detail

The Woburn School Committee voted April 29 to send a proposed FY27 operating budget of $99,749,685 to a public hearing on May 4, after members and public speakers pressed for clearer role-level staffing and funding disclosures.

The vote followed a presentation from the finance office that adjusted the draft budget and reported a net operating increase of 3.95 percent year over year after a small reallocation of one full-time equivalent from one school to another and restoration of a $35,000 vocational line. Finance director Alex Dizio told the committee the printed packet contained a page-layout error and confirmed "the correct number is five FTEs at 2,619,693" in the version before the committee.

During public comment, Miss Kubberry thanked the committee for delaying the public hearing and urged greater transparency: "Transparency is really important when we're talking about a hundred million budget," she said, calling for enrollment data, feasibility-study findings and a single place in the budget book that shows federal and state entitlement grants (noted in the meeting as totaling more than $2 million) and circuit breaker reimbursements and what those funds pay for.

Committee member Mr. Olivera moved that the superintendent and budget team include role-level staffing lines in the budget — for example, listing counts by grade or role ("three fifth-grade teachers") rather than a generic "teacher" line. "I'd like to make a motion that the superintendent direct the budget team to include roles as opposed to standard just 'teacher' within the budget," he said. After discussion about workload and timing, members agreed on a hybrid approach for this budget cycle: finance will publish a supplemental, role-level spreadsheet under the district's budget document on the WPS website and attach a printable addendum to the hard-copy packets, with a plan to fully integrate role-level lines into future budget documents.

Dr. Crowley, the superintendent, thanked the business office and staff for work on the document and highlighted the district's public messaging effort tied to the budget season: "We're investing in our kids," she said, noting the district posted a short video on the WPS website and social channels to show classroom work that the budget supports.

Next steps: the committee advanced the $99,749,685 operating budget to a public hearing scheduled for May 4, 2026. Finance staff agreed to post grant breakdowns, make the supplemental role-level spreadsheet available under the main budget document, and pursue a searchable/compressed PDF to address accessibility concerns raised by members.