Framingham School Committee Confronts Mayor On Proposed $800K Cut

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Mayor Yvonne Spicer's proposal to fix a $2.5 million deficit in Framingham's water and sewer enterprise fund may mean an $800,000 cut in the school department budget, a move School Committee members blasted during a tense exchange at a Wednesday meeting.

After the deficit appeared two weeks ago, Spicer publicly proposed a fix that included an $800,000 schools cut, a $200,000 cut from the water and sewer enterprise fund and the rest from the city's free cash balance. But School Committee members said they were largely left out of discussions about the school department's share.

School Committee Chair Adam Freudberg told Spicer he was "deeply offended" hearing the mayor say the school department could withstand the $800,000 cut. This would also be the fifth cut to the school department by Spicer since April, Freudberg said.

"Of course any organization can go through a budget cutting exercise and lay out impacts and trade-offs," he said. "Yet to say that a mid-year cut of $800,000 with all the uncertainty we just heard about will not hurt, is disingenuous, plain wrong, and the facts provided in the memo to the committee outline the significant realities."

Spicer, who sits on the School Committee, told the members her preference would be to fix the deficit by using free cash with no school department cuts. Framingham Chief Financial Officer Mary Ellen Kelly told the School Committee an all-free-cash solution would not fly with City Council because Councilors want departmental cuts instead.

"It wasn't something done in a vacuum," Spicer said, referring to conversations with Superintendent Robert Tremblay and Finance Director Lincoln Lynch.

City Council members have resisted using $2.5 million in free cash to close the water and sewer fund deficit, but have also balked at the $800,000 cut for the school department. The Council's Finance Subcommittee on Monday voted 3-2 against a plan to use $2.3 million from free cash and a $200,000 cut to the water and sewer enterprise fund. The full City Council on Tuesday also rejected a proposal to reduce the school cut to $400,000 and boost the free cash share of the deficit fix to $1.9 million.

District 1 member Beverly Hugo questioned why the school department was targeted and not other city departments. Kelly said the school department is the only one that saw a funding increase between fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

"I don't have any place left to cut in municipal budgets," she said.

District 6 School Committee member Geoffrey Epstein pointed out the fiscal 2021 increase came from state Chapter 70 funds, not an increase from municipal coffers.

Spicer's plan is on hold for now. On Tuesday, the City Council voted 8-3 to table discussion on how to fix the $2.5 million deficit. The Council, school leaders and the Spicer administration will hold talks in the coming weeks to reach a deal, Freudberg noted.