Watertown School officials, with the guidance of the School Committee, have reduced a shortfall of $2.5 million and came up with a budget that would have a $700,000 surplus, according to the presentation made Monday by Superintendent Dede Galdston.
The total Watertown Public Schools Fiscal Year 2027 budget is $64.59 million, a $2.48 million or 4% increase from FY2026. The budget provides a level services budget from the current school year, which means that the district provides the same programs and generally includes the same staffing levels, although some positions have been eliminated and others added in the budget.
The School Committee will discuss the proposed budget and vote on it at a meeting on Thursday, March 26 at 5:15 p.m. to be held remotely. See details here.
The savings came from a variety of areas, including eliminating nearly the equivalent of 21 full-time positions; increased revenue from fees for athletics, riding the school bus, and community education; and prepaying special education.
Some of the positions cut include six building-based subs for a savings of $136,177; cutting the district’s assistant business manager, education data analyst, and the half-time human resources associate for a savings of $248,311, an ESL teacher at the high school for a $105,888 cut; and eliminating a speech language therapist teacher for an $80,755 savings.
Other eliminated positions include a district nurse, ESL teachers at Lowell and Hosmer elementary schools, a kindergarten instructional aide at Cunniff Elementary School, two instructional aides at Early Steps preschool, a half-time Cunniff world language teacher, and a tech aide at Watertown Middle School.
One of the cost increases facing the Watertown Public Schools comes from the cost of tuitions for private out-of-district special education programs. Galdston said the district will pre-pay $1.5 million in these tuitions, half from money left over from the current fiscal year and half from Special Education Circuit Breaker funds provided by the state to reimburse part of the cost of the tuition. Watertown received $4.4 million in Circuit Breaker funds in FY2026, and the figure is based on the previous fiscal year.
The School Committee also voted to reinstate athletic and extracurricular fees, and increased the bus fees for people not living more than 1.5 miles from elementary schools or 2 miles from the middle school. The athletic/extracurricular fees are expected to bring in $173,000, and the $70,500 is the forecasted amount for bus fee revenue.
With the reinstatement of the athletic fees, Galdston said that the school budget will have a permanent line for athletic uniforms.
The rates for Community Education have also increased, which will result in an anticipated $100,000 in additional funds.
Galdston said the district has also saved some money from staff turnover and retirements. Turnover savings is expected to save $101,268. She added that heading into the budget making in January School officials learned that seven people would be retiring, which Galdston said helped make budgeting easier.
“I would just like to say having the extra retirement incentive has been very beneficial for us over the past several years, since we put that into the contract, so that we do have that number by January, which helps us to build, really, a more accurate budget,” Galdston said.
With the $700,000 surplus, several positions have been added into the Watertown Schools, including a special education coach, a family engagement specialist at the middle school, math interventionists at Cunniff and Lowell, and a science teacher/CoLab Facilitator at the high school.
The tables above came from the budget presentation. See the entire Watertown Public Schools Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Presentation by clicking here.