Littleton School Committee Unanimously Approves $28.5 Million FY2024 School Budget

LITTLETON -- March 16, 2023, Littleton School Committee unanimously approves a $28.5 million FY2024 school budget, with $24.4 million sought from town appropriation. The committee voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a total school department budget of $28,468,846, including $24,433,262 in town-appropriated funds and $4,035,602 in revolving fund usage, a 6 percent increase over the current year's appropriation after town officials asked the district to scale back an initial 7.4 percent request. Budget subcommittee member Justin McCarthy and Superintendent Kimberley Clenchy presented the joint package, which holds the line on existing staffing while adding a sixth-grade generalist teacher, reclassifying two team chair positions, and absorbing a state-approved 14 percent increase in out-of-district special education tuition. The district will draw down its school choice reserve fund, projected at $2.757 million entering FY2024, by a net $219,000 to cover costs that could not fit within the appropriated cap, including $50,000 in special education administrative support recommended by a third-party program review. A projected $100,000 in additional bus and athletic user fees is embedded in the budget but the specific fee schedule has not been set; that decision is expected at one of the next two School Committee meetings before Town Meeting in May.