Facing $5.5 Million Gap, Framingham Schools Urges Feds To Help

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Along with many school board across Massachusetts, Framingham education leaders on Wednesday night passed a resolution asking the federal government to help school districts make it through the coronavirus downturn.

In Framingham alone, the district is facing a $5.5 million reduction in the next fiscal year from what leaders had planned to spend. At the same time, the district is expecting more than 200 students to start school this fall.

The resolution urges federal leaders to "advocate for and approve additional federal education funding for state and local governments to provide to our nation’s public schools with the resources to fulfill their obligations to educate our students."

Framingham's entire budget is in jeopardy due to the coronavirus crisis. Crippled by losses in local and state revenue, Mayor Yvonne Spicer has begun laying off city employees in an attempt to reduce the fiscal 2021 budget. As part of those reductions, the School Department's budget went from $147.3 million — the amount approved by the School Committee in early April — down to $141.8 million.

The $5.5 million difference will be made up by not hiring new teachers at Fuller Middle School and elsewhere, among many other cuts.

Framingham leaders were expecting a significant boost in Chapter 70 state aid this year after the passage of the Student Opportunity Act late last year. Framingham was supposed to get more than $7 million in new funding this year, but the increase will only be about $2.4 million.

The Wednesday resolution comes after the Framingham School Committee, Spicer, and the City Council got a state-level budget update from state Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, on Tuesday night. Warning of state deficits near $8 billion, Spilka urged local leaders to contact federal officials for help.

Spilka said that the federal HEROES Act, which passed the U.S. House last week, could provide relief for local governments that have lost revenue due to coronavirus. But it's unclear if the bill will make it out of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

"The best hope to minimize the direct loss of education support for our kids and educators is by direct federal government action," School Committee Chair Adam Freudberg said in a news release. "This resolution will help our state and federal elected officials in their continued pursuit for nationwide support for educators and school districts."