Framingham School Committee Continues to Mull FY26 Budget

FRAMINGHAM - The Framingham School Committee discussed the latest revisions to their school budget request to Mayor Charlie Sisitsky for the 2026 fiscal year during their meeting on Wednesday, March 26.

The initial budget proposal from Framingham Public Schools (FPS) officials was $190.4 million; that figure was outlined to members of the City Council’s Finance Subcommittee on March 11. That proposal, which would have represented a roughly 10.5% raise from the $172.6 million local school budget for FY25, featured about $92.5 million in state assistance through the Chapter 70 program. The opening pitch was calculated with all requests for funding made across all departments throughout the school district in mind.

Members of the Finance Subcommittee agreed earlier in the month that the final budget number will have to be lower than that first proposal, while Executive Director of Finance and Operations for FPS Lincoln Lynch advised that he and other school leaders have been looking at how the budget request could be decreased.

The most recent school budget request—which was reviewed during Wednesday’s meeting—is for about $186.6 million, approximately $4.4 million lower than the first budget provided to local legislators earlier in March. That latest figure would represent a raise of just over 8% from the previous year. The most recent budget request does account for the full $92.5 million in Chapter 70 money that was projected in the first plan.

The raise from FY25 is primarily driven by $12 million in various salary line items.

The $4.4 million in recent reductions have come from a variety of cuts to the initial budget, including roughly $2.5 million in new position reductions. FPS had requested $3.1 million for new positions at first, according to Lynch during Wednesday’s School Committee meeting.

“As you’re seeing (these budget numbers), remember: we put this budget together back in October,” Lynch said.

“So, we’ve had several months of actual, year-to-date expenditures, so these reductions are really based on how this year is going and how we believe next year is going to go; we’re being very conservative for next year.”

About $7.2 million in the current budget proposal is earmarked for Framingham’s in-house bus transportation model, a topic of discussion among school officials for months amid ongoing bus driver shortages in the area. The money would cover salaries for 72 bus drivers and 15 monitors, along with other associated costs. Lynch told the School Committee that FPS has interviewed more than 20 people for bus driver roles, while the district has received over 30 applications for monitor positions.

“We are on our way—I don’t want to say it or jinx it—but, really, to have a great bus operation next year,” Lynch continued.

As things currently stand, city officials are proposing a $181.6 million school budget for the upcoming fiscal year, creating a difference between FPS’s most recent proposal of almost $5 million exactly.

District 2 School Committee member David Gordon suggested to postpone the vote to recommend a budget to Sisitsky in order to analyze additional ways to reduce that $5 million difference.

“There may be $50K here, $50K there, $40K here that could essentially just move the needle closer to a number...(1:16:28) It’s a large gap; $5 million is a big number to close,” Gordon said.

Sisitsky has to present the budget to the City Council prior to the start of May. The City Council is slated to vote on the adoption of the municipal budget for the 2026 fiscal year in June.