Framingham Schools Make Budget Cuts, No Perini Lease Renewal

FRAMINGHAM, MA — The Framingham School Committee on Wednesday took several steps to reduce the district's upcoming fiscal year budget — including not moving forward with a new five-year lease for office space at the Perini Building.

The School Committee voted to reduce the fiscal year 2021 budget to about $140.9 million, a little less than what Mayor Yvonne Spicer had asked for. The School Committee had voted in April on a budget request of about $147 million.

To achieve about $832,500 in cuts, the district will not spend $220,000 to fill two assistant director positions in the Office of Teaching and Learning. Those positions opened up when Kerry Wood became principal at Fuller Middle School and Brenda Maurao became principal at Stapleton Elementary. Another $100,000 will come from cutting paper copier leases.

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

But the biggest slice — $512,500 — will come from not moving ahead with a new Perini lease, which means the 60 or so central office staff will work from home for the entire 2020-21 school year.

Forgoing the lease will save teaching jobs, Framingham Superintendent Robert Tremblay said.

"In the middle of this public health and economic crisis, we must focus on directing scarce financial resources towards the classrooms," Tremblay said in a news release. "This one move will protect multiple educator positions from budget cuts."

The Perini lease has been the source of contention for almost a year. Late in 2019, Spicer made public her intention to buy the building outright to house not only the school department, but also many other city departments.

Meanwhile, the school department's lease for space at the building was heading for an expiration on Feb. 1. When that date came, the building owners and city officials decided on a lease extension until June. Then, the coronavirus crisis interfered and derailed Spicer's plans to buy Perini.

The School Committee voted unanimously Wednesday on the new budget reductions.