Wayland School Committee receives $50.7 million budget recommendation for fiscal 2024

WAYLAND -- December 14, 2022, Wayland School Committee unveils $50.7 million budget as teachers air leadership grievances. Superintendent Omar Easy and Finance Director Tom LaFleur walked the committee through a zero-based fiscal 2024 budget representing a 7.36 percent increase, with a level-service portion alone rising 6 percent before any cost-of-living adjustment. Special education costs jump from $3.6 million to a projected $5.3 million, a roughly 48 percent increase, driven partly by a state-set 14 percent hike in private placement tuition after a decade of 2 percent annual increases; Easy called it "not sustainable for districts." Improvement asks total $682,448, including a math interventionist, reading specialist and Spanish-immersion teaching assistant. Public comment was dominated by criticism of central-office leadership: WTA building rep John Berry cited a 12-year veteran leaving Friday, and resident Craig Ruber urged the committee to place Easy on administrative leave pending an ongoing investigation. The committee later entered executive session on Open Meeting Law complaints filed by Kimberly Sklar-Reichelt and George Harris.