Financial Accomplishments

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For many years, Reading residents have been asking for Tuition-Free Full-Day Kindergarten. For many years, administrators and School Committee members had said it wasn't possible, given the district's budget constraints.

During the 2021-2022 School Year, in partnership with the Superintendent, Director of Finance, Town Manager, and Town Treasurer, I developed a model to provide a path for tuition-free, full-day kindergarten in the Town of Reading. The model offered multiple paths, including a multi-year budget impact analysis, student enrollment forecast, and allowances and forecasts for High-Need Students. Ultimately, during the 2022-2023 Budget discussions in January 2022, the School Committee voted to adopt the Three-Year High Needs model, which allowed for an annual decrease in tuition over three years, culminating in tuition-free status in the fourth year. The model enabled the district to absorb the incremental costs, or revenue loss, in manageable increments ($150-$200K per year) over the step-down period. Ultimately, the revolving account for Full-Day Kindergarten will be closed once all the funds in it have been expended.

At our budget discussion for the 2025-2026 School Year in January, we voted on a budget that finally provided for the first year of tuition-free, full-day kindergarten in the Town of Reading. What was said to be impossible became possible through diligence, hard work, collaboration, and a collective will to do what is right for our youngest learners and their families.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government provided States and Local Communities with ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) Funds for distribution to help recover from the pandemic's impact. The Reading Select Board established the Reading ARPA Advisory Committee (RAAC) to provide guidance and advice on the disbursement of approximately $7.5 million allocated to Reading. As a member of the School Committee, I was appointed ex officio to serve as a member of RAAC.

Throughout the process of our discussions, one area of focus that emerged from many frontline workers was the concept of Hazard pay, as they each had to face the public in one way or another and risk bringing COVID-19 home to their families. RAAC heard from multiple unions throughout the town, as well as other non-union town employees. However, RAAC was struggling to distribute the funds to employees fairly and equitably.

Ultimately, working with the Directors of Human Resources for both the Town and Schools, the Town Manager, and the Town Treasurer, I developed a model for distributing $ 900,000 to Reading's front-line workers, including Police, Fire Personnel, Teachers, Cafeteria Workers, and others. The model accounted for differentials to ensure equitable distribution based on base pay, exposure to the public, and seasonal employment income loss. In the end, approximately 835 employees of the Town received some portion of this Hazard pay based upon these factors after both the RAAC and the Select Board voted to accept the model as a means of distributing the money.

Planning for Special Education expenses can be one of the most challenging parts of budget planning for a Public School District in this country. With that said, we must staff efficiently, train effectively, and do as much as we can to support in-district learning for our Special Education students. This is important for multiple reasons, but one of those reasons is purely financial. It is simply more cost-effective to educate our students in Reading Public Schools than to send them out of the district to specialist schools.

As part of my Campaign in 2019, I advocated for an Invest to Save model, demonstrating that by investing in our internal programs, we could save money and help children and their families. My focus at the time was on our BRIDGE program, which has since been renamed to the LEAD program. LEAD is our in-district program for children with language-based disabilities, specifically those with dyslexia. We have conducted training for our staff in this program, recruited additional members for the overall program, and created a role to ensure vertical alignment of the program from K-12. We are seeing the results. Recently, as part of a Needs Assessment of the Program by the MGH Institute of Health Professions, one of the foremost experts in Dyslexia and other language-based disabilities, Tiffany Hogan, confirmed that Reading is in the 95th percentile of programs in the area for this area of Special Education. If you would like to learn more about the MGH review, please review the following video.

This is just one example; we are also continuing to invest in our other in-district programs. I will continue to advocate for this type of investment, as I firmly believe it is the most suitable model for all parties: the children, their families, the District, and taxpayers.

A significant part of achieving sustainable excellence is planning for challenging scenarios. One of the most difficult aspects of a School Committee budget is the Special Education budget, as we must be able to respond to unexpected Special Education needs.

As we reviewed the 2023-2024 budget in January 2023, it became apparent that we were doing a great job of managing our Special Education costs through investments in in-district staff. However, we still needed to ensure that we could handle any unexpected costs without compromising the rest of our budget. After discussions with the Director of Finance and Operations, we decided to establish a Special Education Reserve Fund, allowing us to set aside funds that could be drawn upon in an emergency without impacting the rest of the budget.

In February of 2023, the School Committee voted to pursue the option and recommend it to the Town Meeting for April of that year. In April of 2023, Town Meeting members approved the creation of the Special Education Reserve Fund. In June 2023, I drafted the preliminary Policy for managing funds in the Special Education Reserve Fund, and the Policy Subcommittee reviewed and approved its creation. In August of 2023, the School Committee approved the Special Education Reserve Fund policy for adoption. Since its creation, approximately $385K has been deposited into the Fund to provide the emergency backstop we need to sustain excellence in our District and with our Special Education programs.

Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, the School Committee and Administration proactively engaged with our unions to negotiate the contracts for the 2024-2027 school years. While I was the Chair of the School Committee at the time, I was also the lead School Committee member in the negotiations. Additionally, working closely with the Superintendent, Director of Human Resources, and Director of Finance and Operations, I developed financial models to help the School Committee, administration, and unions understand the costs associated with various proposals from all parties. These models were robust and accounted for all staff members and staff openings in each of the unions. They understood the contract steps that each union member would follow and would be on throughout the life of the contract. They also accounted for various financial inputs to the model, such as vacation days, holidays, stipends, and other potential cost escalators for the district, as well as income for the union members.

Throughout the process, we utilized these models openly and transparently with each union, allowing them to understand the impact of their proposals and how they might or might not align with the district's budget and, ultimately, the tax levy. This mode of engagement was markedly different than past negotiations and garnered trust in the process and the partnership we have to support students and their families across the district. In the end, we successfully negotiated all five union contracts well before their existing ones were set to expire, despite the backdrop of multiple strikes across the state. Finally, each of the contracts addressed long-standing issues between the School Committee, administration, and the unions while keeping the School Committee within its forecasted tax levy allocation in a sustainable manner.