Wayland Board of Health backs FY26 budget with full-time preschool nurse

WAYLAND — December 9, 2024 — Wayland Board of Health unanimously backs FY26 budget folding in full-time Children's Way Preschool nurse. Chair Robert Defrancesco, Jonathan Storer and Genevieve Anand approved the plan, which adds an $81,571 community health nurse line the town previously split with the school department, and a $27,353 increase in department salaries tied to cost-of-living, union scale and a proposed promotion of the public health nurse to assistant director. Health Director Julia Junghanns said she is "still pushing for" the promotion, telling the board the nurse already oversees 10 community health nurses and a school program that logged 17,446 visits and 6,135 medication administrations across six schools last year. The budget also bumps food-inspection funding, applies a 2.5 percent increase for East Middlesex Mosquito Control and removes an unused temporary-office-help line.