Newburyport School Committee opens 25 school choice seats amid split vote

School Committee · Meeting of April 8, 2026

Newburyport School Committee opens 25 school choice seats and hears budget gap warning ahead of April 29 vote. The committee approved 15 seats in grade 9, five in grade 6, and five in grade 10 on a split 4-3 vote on the grade 9 question, after Superintendent Gallagher and Business Manager Ethan Manning warned that the proposed FY27 city appropriation of $41.1 million — a $1.7 million, or 4.33 percent, increase — already exhausts nearly all available reserves, with circuit breaker funds projected to end the year at roughly $70,000 and no contingency built into substitute or overtime lines. Mayor Redden told the committee the city's guidance was 3 percent and the schools remain about $600,000 above that threshold, saying, "4.3 percent is not going to make it on the city side of the budget." Manning attributed the outsized increase to 34 out-of-district special education placements, including seven in residential programs, which alone added 5.9 percent to the level-service budget.

The committee is scheduled to adopt a final school budget at its April 29 meeting.

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Source: the School Committee meeting of April 8, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.