Wayland School Committee cuts another $450,000 from FY24 budget proposal

WAYLAND -- March 1, 2023, Wayland School Committee cuts another $450,000 from FY24 budget. Members voted 4-0, with one recusal, to eliminate two unfilled positions, a Loker Elementary special education teacher and an elementary English Learner teacher, for $150,000 in personnel savings, and to strip $300,000 from special education out-of-district transportation, hoping for state circuit-breaker reimbursement that Finance Director Tom LeFleur warned is "not guaranteed." The cut comes on top of an earlier $598,000 reduction that killed full-day kindergarten funding and pared middle school staffing from 2.2 FTEs to 0.8. Acting Superintendent Perry Graham said he could not square "$1.2 million in cuts" against $1.16 million in new Chapter 70 aid the town applied to lower the property tax increase from 9 percent to just under 7 percent. The committee also approved the 7th-grade Cape Cod overnight at a new venue, Camp Burgess, at $464 per student.