Minuteman School Committee Approves $9.7 Million Budget

LEXINGTON, SUDBURY – The Minuteman School Committee has adopted a budget for the coming year that is slightly smaller than the current one.

The committee on Jan. 19 voted to adopt a $19.7 million budget for the fiscal year, which starts July 1. The budget is $103,000, or 0.52 percent, lower than the current year’s budget of $19.8 million.

The Minuteman district includes 16 member communities: Acton, Arlington, Belmont, Bolton, Boxborough, Carlisle, Concord, Dover, Lancaster, Lexington, Lincoln, Needham, Stow, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston.

• Subscribe to Sudbury news alerts and updates
• Sudbury Patch on Facebook
• Next: Why The Urgency on the Minuteman School, And Other FAQs

The vote to adopt was 13-0. Members from Sudbury, Wayland and Weston were not present.

By using $825,000 in Excess and Deficiency (E&D) funds, the committee will hold overall assessment increases to member towns to 0.48 percent -- less than one-half of one percent, said the committee in an announcement.

“ The small increase is primarily due to a decline in non-resident tuition revenue,” said the press release. “This decline in revenue is attributed to the lowering of non-resident tuition rates by the commissioner of education and an overall reduction in non-member students attending the school.”

The FY 2017 budget continues a multi-year transition to a school with a smaller, 628-student enrollment. The new budget continues to phase out two vocational-technical education programs, merge two programs, and phase in two new programs, said the announcement.

Minuteman is establishing an advanced manufacturing and metal fabrication program and a highly anticipated Multi-media Engineering program.

Each of these new programs are strongly supported by labor market demand data and by local business and industry representatives on Minuteman Advisory Committees. Several vacant staff positions are being left unfilled, continued the announcement.

The budget includes $500,000 for an initial debt service payment toward construction of a new school. If the new building project is delayed or rejected, those funds would need to be reallocated for the start of major capital repairs.

Minuteman officials noted that its operating budgets and assessments have not increased significantly over the past ten years. Over that period, assessments have increased an average of 1.1 percent per year.