Blackstone‑Millville superintendent presents FY25 draft budget, cites $2.5M in reductions and proposed grade reconfiguration

Dr DeFalco, superintendent of the Blackstone‑Millville Regional School District, presented the district's FY25 draft budget and said the administration has cut about $2.5 million through personnel, materials and program reductions while pursuing a grade reconfiguration that the administration estimates will save roughly $695,000.

The presentation tied the budget to the district’s strategic plan (“Blueprint 2.0”) and state academic data, including 2023 MCAS results and accountability classifications. DeFalco said the district’s graduation rate is about 92% and the dropout rate is roughly 1.7%. He also noted modest achievement gaps in math and a curriculum revision underway for science.

DeFalco told the joint meeting that the administration consolidated staff by combining grade spans and eliminating some school-based teams; that consolidation accounts for the largest share of savings. He said the district expects to remove about 19 full-time positions across buildings through the reconfiguration and related efficiency measures, while maintaining class-size targets — about 18–19 students in K–1 and about 23–24 in grades 2–7.

The presentation separated the operating budget from sending tuitions: the administration reported school choice sending tuition at about $840,000 and charter school sending tuition just under $1.2 million; those amounts are added to the district’s operating totals on the preliminary revenue sheets. DeFalco said one‑time and temporary revenue sources used in previous years — including circuit breaker special education reimbursements and federal ESSER funds — have declined or been used, removing about $1.4 million in offsets the district relied on last year.

"We don't have a budget problem; we have a funding stream problem," DeFalco said, explaining that reduced state and federal offsets mean local assessments rise even when the operating budget is slightly smaller year over year. The administration projected the overall draft operating budget to be roughly $79,000 lower than FY24 after the identified reductions, while acknowledging that town assessments may still increase because of lost revenue streams.

Board members asked for greater line‑item detail and a side‑by‑side comparison of this year's appropriations with the FY25 draft; the superintendent said those detailed function-code comparisons would be shared with the town administrators and reviewed at finance committee meetings. Members also questioned assumptions about upcoming union negotiations and cost‑of‑living adjustments; the administration said those COLA amounts remain subject to bargaining and that estimates were used where possible.

The administration said capital needs for the coming year are limited to routine items (HVAC cleaning, mini‑splits) and the district remains focused on monitoring state and federal funding prospects. A public hearing and the budget certification vote are scheduled for March 7, when the committee will also hold a public hearing on the proposed grade reconfiguration.

The meeting concluded with procedural motions to adjourn.