Skip to main content

FY22 Natick Public Schools Appropriation $75, 063, 994

Approved 4/15/2021 by Town Meeting  -  126 - 1 - 1  

Want to know what Town Meeting is and why it matter's to the budgets?  Check out this video.

Quick Overview of the current budget process...   

  1. School Administration presents a budget to the School Committee at a series of  meetings
  2. School Committee considers the budget, ask questions and then votes on the budget 
  3. Town Administrator (hired position) also creates a budget for all of the departments in the town, including the schools.
  4. All of the budgets go through the Finance Committee - (15 person appointed board) - to be vetted and then voted on in sub committees and the full committee.  Finance Committee Website - Great resource if you'd like to see all of the budgets. 
  5. School Committee and TA can make adjustments throughout the spring based on conversations at the Finance Committee. This year for example, the School Committee voted on the budget 3 separate times to land on this final number for the next school year.


Things to note for this budget - 
  • This vote allows for around $1M to come out of capital stabilization (a savings account) to provide the money needed now with the intention replacing the savings in the fall with Free Cash that becomes available. 
  • The Schools and Town were able to find a mutually agreeable number - see this slide to understand how "the gap" was reached.


Where does the money come from?   




  • In addition to this appropriation, NPS has received and will continue to received grants to get through the affects of COVID in the coming years.  
  • ESSER (Elementary and Secondary Schools Education Recovery) estimates can be found here.  (another post coming specifically about essers.) 
  • Administration shared that the grant tracker will be on the transparency page of NPS.  

Thank you to all of our Town Meeting Members who are staying up late into the night to vote this all of the town budgets.  



Popular posts from this blog

Statement on Recusal

Here are the remarks I gave last night when letting my committee know my decision to recuse:  After the School Committee meeting on October 15th, several individuals wrote into the SpeakUp Natick portal requesting that I recuse myself from voting on the possible closure of Johnson.  The substance of these messages, sent to the full committee, carried a familiar refrain. The messages - often using the same language – said some version of the following:  Catherine Brunell should recuse herself from deliberating and voting on the closure of Johnson because she lacks objectivity, as her children go to school there and she is from that neighborhood. I asked myself the question if there was any merit to the request for me to recuse myself and started to do some research about why people recuse  From what I can tell from the minutes, in Natick, It’s never happened before - not with the Kennedy, Wilson or the High School - not even for members whose children were to attend t...
Read more

Evaluation Time

The School Committees of every community are charged with oversight for the budget, the policies and the evaluation of the superintendent for the districts they serve. Tonight, in Natick, we begin the Superintendent evaluation process.  Virtual Meeting Link - 6:00 p.m.    Background:  Page 2 of DESE Model system guide for Superintendent Evaluation These videos  and this PDF explain the 5 step Superintendent Evaluation Process that Natick is piloting with other communities. It was developed in partnership with Superintendents, School Committees and the Dept. of Ed.   While Natick has adjusted some of the evaluation to be in-line with the process outlined in the above resources, we are continuing to develop the full pilot program.  Also, for a point of reference and a reminder that every superintendent goes through a similar process,   here is a slide deck from one of the initial meetings for the City of Boston's Superintendent evaluatio...
Read more

Quick Summary of Key things for the Natick School Committee this week

  Quick Links for current items: Natick School Committee begins Coffee Hours - Take a moment to speak to one of your elected officials about the district’s strategic plan in the coming months!   Policy Questions?  Click here to see the Natick School Committee Policy Manual .  Every year it is accepted by the Natick School Committee as our guiding principles for our work. It sets expectations for communication, procedures and processes for most everything related to our schools.  While specific policies are updated every year, the last major revision/ reconsideration of policies was in the early 2000’s.   One goal of the current policy subcommittee is to begin to look at each section of our policy manual once a year for a more sustainable updating of these key policies.   Policy Subcommittee’s next meeting is Thursday, Feb 17th from 1- 3 p.m. on the 3rd floor of the Natick Town Hall.   Budget Season! Not a financial person? Rea...
Read more