The Chelsea school administration and school committee are working to get out ahead of what looks to be a drastic budget shortfall for the 2027-28 school year.
Facing a laundry list of daunting factors, headlined by decreasing enrollment and increased transportation, healthcare and other costs, the school district is currently facing a $22 million-plus budget shortfall for the 27-28 school year, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Almi Abeyta.
The school committee held a special meeting last week to address the still gestating budget numbers and begin to look at potential solutions to ease the budget crunch.
Abeyta and school officials said the meeting was called in an effort to provide greater transparency to the public and to get ahead of the budget process. The superintendent noted that the October meeting is the earliest the school department has ever met to discuss the following year’s budget.
“This is estimated based on what we know today; it could change multiple times because we are starting so early,” said Abeyta. “It is sobering, which is part of the reason that we need to be in front of it right now.”
Abeyta said there needs to be a sense of urgency both in the school system and in the city as a whole.
“This gives us time to advocate to the people way above us (on Beacon Hill), because there are so many areas that we are not being funded at in the right way,” said Abeyta. “It is so much larger than the Chelsea Public Schools. I can give you so many examples; special education isn’t being funded correctly, Chapter 70 (state funding) there is an inflation cap and we’re not keeping up with inflation.”
Abeyta said that when the Student Opportunity Act that realigned state funding for education passed in 2019, Chelsea was able to add over 200 positions in the district over six years.
“In this budget season, and you will see this, in one year that will negate all of the six years that we have had the Student Opportunity Act,” said Abeyta. “I am very concerned about that, because we are headed in the right direction as a school system. What this budget does to us as educators, as building leaders, as teachers, it creates this culture and climate where people are fearful, people are going, is my job going to be cut?”
Abeyta said she is concerned that if the district and city does not advocate at the state level, the schools will lose more teachers, administrators, and programs.
“We don’t want to go in that direction, so we need to figure this out,” she said.
The superintendent and school finance director Billie Jo Turner laid out the immediate budget challenges and what they will potentially contribute to the budget shortfall.
As of October, student enrollment has fallen by 300 students since last year. State funding is calculated on a per pupil basis, and with the falling enrollment, Turner and Abeyta estimated the district will lose $6.6 million in state funding.
Estimated staff cost increases account for another $6.7 million shortfall, and healthcare and pension expenses add another $2.5 million.
Special Education costs add another $1.5 million. Turner noted that this is a bid year for the district’s transportation costs, and that could add another $2.5 million to the shortfall. Other costs, such as utilities and insurance costs, bring the total estimated shortfall for the 27-28 school year to $22.3 million as of last week’s school committee meeting.
“This year, everything is skyrocketing with costs,” said Turner. “So when I did this estimate, it’s based on historical trends and projections.”
Turner said the numbers will change as the district gets more information in the coming months.
“The Student Opportunity Act passed in 2019, it was a bill that was supposed to close educational gaps, close equity gaps, so that the quality of education that you received didn’t depend on your zip code,” said school committee member Dr. Sarah Neville. “So it did that by making it so that if children were facing disadvantage, they got extra funding for those children. So districts got extra funding for ELL students and for students who were low income, and there were other changes to the formula so that it would help districts like ours.
“What we were finding is that our districts were underfunded because the state wasn’t accurately accounting for how expensive it is to equitably educate students who were facing those challenges.”
Neville said the devastating cuts the Chelsea schools are potentially facing points to the fact that the Student Opportunity Act was not enough to close the equity gaps and prevent the current financial crisis in the schools. She added that the state is undertaking a foundation budget review that could once again change how the state school funding formula is calculated.
“We have to advocate and fight hard at the state level to make sure our voices are heard,” said Neville. “We have not fixed education inequity, and we still need to properly account for the cost of educating our students.”
In addition to advocating on the state side, Neville said it is also important to advocate for funding from the city.
“We have to be loud to the city council, as well, and make it clear that this is a priority for our city,” said Neville. “I know that our city cannot make up this gap completely. We are a low-income city, and our tax base isn’t what other wealthier cities are, and we also fund many city services that are important to our vulnerable residents and we have to keep funding as well.”
Abeyta said the next school committee meeting will feature a presentation on school staffing.
“We worked really hard over the summer to really provide some details on staffing, so we are going to have our next presentation on staffing comparative to other gateway districts … so we can see where Chelsea is with staffing, as well,” said Abeyta. “Also, we are going to start the community process in November where we reach out with what is working, what is not working, and going over the budget. We will also be going to some of our nonprofits to present and ask questions much earlier this year.”