Budget Frequently Asked Questions

Updated March 10, 2025

New Questions added to the top of the FAQ

Updated March 10, 2025

Q. What funding has been lost for the schools due to the town’s non-compliance with the MBTA communities act?

A. The school department is currently not eligible for the following grant, which was previously awarded in 2024: Supporting Students' SEL, Behavioral & Mental Health, in the amount of $150,000.  The school department also applied for the Partnership for Reading Success grant ($30,000 over several years) and the Computer Science Professional Development and Devices, both of which were not awarded, due to the town being classified as out of compliance.

Q.Can you talk more about the ELA curriculum and why it’s important to update that? Does investing in that save money elsewhere longer term?

1. Our current curriculum is not up to current standards of best practices regarding the science of reading. While we have supplemented the current curriculum with resources that align with current best practice, our textbook is rated as “partially meets expectations” by EdReports.  It is important to support our teachers and the learning of all of our students in ELA and to do that we must have an up to date, rigorous curriculum to put in front of our students.  This investment doesn’t have a direct offset of savings elsewhere but the more we can strengthen our general curriculum and instruction (what we call our tier 1 instruction), the more we can support student development within general education classroom settings and hopefully limit the need of students to require additional services above and beyond the general classroom curriculum (which cost money).  That said, there will always be students who will need additional supports or interventions to support their learning regardless of the curriculum, so there should be no assumption that there would be large scale monetary savings due to these improvements.

Q. Would there be an option for early retirement in order to close the gap on the budget shortfall?

1. MPS has not considered implementing early retirement offerings in order to support the current projected end of year deficit for FY25.  Retirement benefits overall are listed in the collective bargaining agreements for all MPS staff.  For more information on those agreements, please visit this page.  Retirements, attrition, student enrollment, and a number of other factors are considered when creating the budget for the upcoming fiscal and school year.  For FY’26, we took into consideration the number of known retirements, as well as any shifts in enrollment, to determine staffing levels and projected costs.

Q. How much of our special education funding is state or federally funded?

1. Milton Public Schools receives both state and federal funding to offset the cost of operations tied to Special Education.  More information on state funding through the Circuit Breaker program can be found here. MPS also receives several federal grants, including the Special Education IDEA 240 grant, as well as the Special Education Early Childhood 262 grant.  The funding allocated to the town varies from year to year.  More information on grant allocations, by municipality, can be found at DESE’s website.

Updated March 5, 2025

Q. What is the process for checks and balances up until today, did the School Committee and the Superintendent sign off on these budgets?

A.Every year the budget is developed by the school department, as overseen by the Superintendent, in accordance with School Committee policies DB - DBG.  Budget development work is collaborative and typically involves the inclusion of many staff members within the district to inform budget projections and decisions for the following fiscal year.  Once the district has a draft budget to propose, the Superintendent will present it to the School Committee, often first through the finance subcommittee and then to the larger School Committee.  The School Committee’s role is to question, advise, and even direct the school department around overarching visionary ideas around the budget such as specific programs they want to see implemented or positions they would like to see added.  This is done as a collective body, as an individual member can not direct the district to take any action..The School Committee does not provide recommendations to the school department on the establishment of specific line items within the budget but should try to review the budget generally and ask questions that support the district in their work of establishing the budget.  Ultimately the School Committee votes on the budget.  That budget is then shared with the Select Board, the Town Administrator, and Town Meeting for review and ultimate approval.  While Town Meeting does vote on the budget they do not vote on specific line items but rather solely on the overall budget number.

Q. How does the new school building impact this?  How does this impact the new school building?

A. There is no direct connection between the operational override and the new school in that the funding streams for both are considered and voted on by the town separately.  That said, the operational override is a request of town residents to voluntarily increase their taxes above the allowable 2.5% to fund the towns operations.  Any future vote on a school building would also be a request of town residents to voluntarily increase their taxes over the terms of the debt (likely 30 years) to pay for the construction.  So in that way both are financial requests of residents and the tax burden of one could affect a resident’s decision about voting for another one.

Q. Approximately how many positions will be lost at the schools under a non-override budget?

A.Not passing the override would result in a cut of approximately $5.4 million to the school budget for SY26.  This includes a combination of positions and programs.   The planned non-override cuts in positions would be 70.2 full-time equivalent positions. The list of positions is linked here.

Q. When is the next financial audit by an independent party?

A. Every year, the school department is required by Section 3 of Chapter 72 to submit the End of the Year report to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on or before September 30, 2024.  The school department is then required to have this report audited by an independent third party.  If there are any audit findings, the District is required to amend the report to update the known discrepancies.  The final audit report is due to DESE by April 1.

The school department is also audited every year by an independent 3rd party, as is the town as a whole.  The next time that will happen will be near the end of the current fiscal year and the start of the next fiscal year (around July/August timeframe). The MPS Audit Reports for recent years can be found on the Budget page of the MPS website.

Q. Do you have an understanding of what budget items were paid for by Covid recovery funds/grants?

1. The issue of accurately tracking and reporting COVID/ESSER expenditures was a common challenge faced by many schools that received funds. ESSER funds had specific allowable uses, but these often overlapped with existing budget items. For example, technology, cleaning supplies, and staff salaries could all be funded by both the regular budget and ESSER. This overlap made it possible to shift expenditures to ESSER, even for items that would have been funded anyway, to free up regular budget funds for other pressing needs.

At times some positions that were more highly valued within the budget may have been paid for with COVID/ESSER funds simply because they fit more neatly within certain allowable expenses even though the goal was to keep those positions long-term.  Ultimately the school department has put together a list of ALL positions added to the school district since the last override in 2018.  This data should provide key insight into what new positions have been prioritized and invested in by the town over that period.

Q. Who is creating the contingency plans - for this year, next and the one beyond?  What are the opportunities for community voice in that process?

1. The School Committee has public comment at every one of its public meetings.  All regular meetings are hybrid and the link to attend on zoom is here. The meeting schedule can be found on the town website.  In addition the School Committee has publicly available email addresses for residents to submit input.  All budget discussions by the School Committee or Select Board are done in compliance with open meeting law and are recorded and posted through Milton Access TV.  Additionally the School Committee has a public budget hearing, as is required annually by state law, scheduled for March 5th at 6:30pm.  The School Committee will further be holding public engagement sessions around the budget and override in the coming weeks and months.

Q. Do we have, or can we get, some data from surrounding or similar districts on how they have dealt with the 4% inflation on an annual basis given the constraints of Proposition 2.5? Are other towns/districts in this same situation? Have they also experienced unexpected, exponential increases in special education services costs? How are they dealing with it? Or if not, how did they avoid finding themselves here?

1. The short answer is yes, the challenges with inflation and special education expenditures that Milton is experiencing is happening across the Commonwealth. This Boston Globe article gives an overview of the challenges faced by many towns.  This  joint statement from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) and the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials (MASBO) addresses some of the factors that are straining school district budgets.

Many towns have been proceeding with passing overrides prior to this year.  Brookline passed one in 2023 and both Belmont and Braintree passed one in 2024.  Many more towns have gone to residents for overrides to increase taxes above the 2.5% cap.  This is a standard process across the Commonwealth and Milton has a long history of overrides, with the last override vote taking place in 2017.

Q. When will the DESE chart of accounts breakdown for the proposed FY 2026 budget be available? Specifically, the allocations for categories such as Instruction, Instructional Leadership, SPED, etc. I was unable to locate this information within the combined FY 2026 budget package under the Budget → FY 2026 tab.

1. In an effort to increase transparency, the school department budget information was released showing line level detail, rather than a summary of information that was combined by DESE category.  The line level detail information can be found within the FY’26 budget document, starting on page 29. 

This information is not typically provided by the town within the budget process.  This is gathered by DESE through the ongoing state reporting that is done annually.  It is generally posted on a lagging basis, meaning the information will be on the DESE website for FY26 sometime next year.

Q. What is causing the SPED budget to increase so significantly over the last several years and even decade?

1. Both our total number of students has increased as well as our percentage of students identified as requiring special education services.  Our rate of identification has increased just as it has across the state overall.  Increased SPED identification is a reality within our Commonwealth.  Additionally, costs associated with special education services (i.e. transportation, evaluations, out of district placements, etc) have increased at a rate substantially greater than the average inflation rate of 4%.  For example, in the 2023-2024 school year the state approved an increase to out-of-district placement costs of more than 14% for that single year.  So more kids overall, a larger percentage of those additional kids needing services, and those services costing significantly more than they have historically are all resulting in the SPED budget challenges we, and the majority of school districts across the Commonwealth, are experiencing.

If the override passes in April does that mean the positions are safe? If the override fails does it mean all of those positions are cut? Do the cuts you listed mean that elementary age children will no longer have any special classes (music, art, tech, library)? Do you know how likely it is that this will happen? We are here for schools and will need to figure out if we need to move.

1. If the override fails the positions listed on the non-override cut list (linked here) are the positions that will be cut.  This does include some, although certainly not all specialist positions. The type of cuts vary by school as we have tried to be thoughtful about how we would be able to best manage the significant impact of a failed override.  

The impact of a successful override vote depends on what the override budget dollar value is set at, a number that is set by the Select Board.  If the Select Board sets a dollar amount that would fund the schools less than our level service number of $6.4 million then the district would still have to make some cuts.  Exactly what those would be  is still to be determined once the Select Board sets a final number.

Do we get revenue from other towns when they send their students requiring special education services to Milton?

1. Milton does not enroll any students out of our district into any programming within the district due to the space limitations within our district.  We do not have extra space within our sites or programs that would allow us to open seats to other district students.  If we did, we would be allowed to charge those districts for those services, but the fiscal impact would be mostly cost neutral as the payment would cover the cost of the services those students would be receiving.  Again, that is theoretical as Milton does not currently serve any out of district students.

Updated February 13, 2025

Q. Does the Milton Public Schools undergo independent audits?

1. Yes, as required by state law, all school districts including MPS are independently audited every year. In Milton, the findings of each year's independent audit, which includes the whole town as well as the school district, are reported to the Town's Audit Committee, which then reports out at the Annual Town Meeting each spring. Additionally, MPS submits an annual financial report to DESE each year that is reviewed by DESE.

Updated February 12, 2025

Q. What is state aid?

1. Funding for education aid – commonly referred to as Chapter 70 – is part of the annual state budget. Chapter 70 aid is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ primary program for distributing its portion of K-12 public education funding to the state’s local and regional school districts. It is allocated to each individual town from the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) based on a formula. You can find the inputs to the formula and the full Chapter 70 calculations on the DESE website.

Q. What is a budget offset?

1. There are a significant number of outside revenue sources that are used to reduce, or “offset”, the school operating budget.  These consist of user fee revolving funds (school bus, athletics, preschool tuition), federal grants (SPED IDEA, Early Childhood, Title I), state reimbursement programs, and other sources. All told, there is more than $3.9 million dollars in outside revenue sources used to help fund the Milton Public Schools budget. A decrease in budget offset (or reduction in revenue) has the same impact on the operating budget as an increase in expenditures.

Q. What is the difference between a revolving fund and a stabilization account?

1. A school revolving fund separately accounts for specific revenue and earmarks them for expenditure by a board or officer without appropriation for particular purposes to support an activity.  Examples of a school department revolving fund include student athletics and activities, use of school property (building rental), and school extended services.  The fund balance for established revolving funds carries forward to the next fiscal year.  A school stabilization account (such as the Special Education Reserve Fund) is established by a majority vote of the school committee and a majority vote of the legislative body.  This fund can only be used to pay for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs of special education expenses.  The balance of the fund shall not exceed 2 per cent of the annual net school spending of the district.  Funds shall only be distributed from the reserve funds after a majority vote of the school committee and a majority vote of the board of selectmen.  Milton Public Schools currently operates multiple revolving funds but has no stabilization account.

Q. What is Circuit Breaker funding?

1. The Commonwealth Special Education Reimbursement Program, commonly known as the Circuit Breaker Program, provides financial assistance to public school districts to offset the cost of delivering high-cost, mandated special education services to students.

Q.  How is Circuit Breaker funding calculated?

1. Circuit breaker reimbursement is provided based on costs paid by districts for qualified special education tuition & instruction services and for associated transportation to out-of-district programs. Pricing for these programs is set by state and other public entities outside of the Circuit Breaker program. Those costs include private program tuition rates, individually authorized student program rates, collaborative tuition rates, in-district service rates and transportation costs.  If the costs associated with a Special Education student exceed the threshold level set by the state (for FY25, this cost is $52,419 ), costs above that threshold are eligible for reimbursement. More information can be found here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/circuitbreaker/.  

Q. What is a level-funded budget?

1. A level funded Operating Budget is funded at the same dollar amount for consecutive years.  Level funded budgets may result in a cut in services, to offset increased costs.

Q.  What is a level-service budget?

1. A level service Operating Budget is funded to reflect the amount of funding that the school district would need in the next fiscal year to provide the same level of services as the current year.  This budget does not include any new services or programs; however, there are adjustments to the budget to account for contractual obligations, enrollment changes, and other special circumstances.

Q. Where may I obtain information on the school budget?

1. Information and presentations related to the school department’s annual budget can be found on the school district website at HERE.  Additionally the school department budget is part of the town of Milton’s annual town meeting warrant process and is one component of the town budget as a whole.  Information related to presentations on the town’s current budget situation can be found on the town’s website HERE and information related to what town meeting allocated in terms of the school department budget can be found on the town website HERE.

Q. What is a structural deficit?

1. A structural deficit is a financial challenge whereby what is budgeted on an annual basis is not sufficient to cover the actual expenses associated with that activity.  For example, if a department knows that they spend $100.00 a year every year on electricity but only budget $50.00 each year for it, the department has a structural deficit within that line item of $50.00.  In this scenario the department will need to cut in other areas of its operation to pay for the actual cost of electricity.  In reality, structural budget deficits cross multiple line items within a budget and result in the cutting of expected services in order to cover the actual costs of ongoing, known expenditures.  Typically structural deficits arise because of lack of funding and a department’s need to present a balanced budget.  Unfortunately when this is done it fails to properly communicate to those approving the department budget of the actual expected costs of the services that are being requested and results in challenges to the operation in order to close the gap.

Q. How does Milton’s spending on its schools compare to other communities across the state?  

1. The state provides a common measurement for school district spending called “Per Pupil Expenditure”.  This metric shows how much a town spends per student it serves in a given fiscal year.  This measurement helps to adjust spending based upon the proportional size of a district.  The metric is a lagging indicator as the state releases this data on a two year delay each January.  Currently, the most recent data is for fiscal year 2023 which can be found HERE.  In 2023 Milton’s total expenditure per pupil was $18,925.49.  The state average per pupil expenditure for the same time period was $21,885.22.  Milton ranks in the bottom 30th percentile in total spending per student.  

Q.  What is Proposition 2 ½?

1. Proposition 2 ½ is a state law that limits the amount of additional revenue a municipality can collect through taxes.  Details about the state law can be found HERE.  The only way for a municipality to increase revenue through taxes above what is allowable under Proposition 2½ is to go through an override process, of which there are two types (see below). Approval of an override requires a 2/3rds approval in the local legislative body (which for Milton is Town Meeting) and majority approval through a town-wide vote.

Q. What is our actual shortfall number in the MPS budget for FY’26? I have heard 6.4 million, 4 million and 5.4 million.

1. To maintain our level services for next year, our budget needs to increase by approximately 6.4 million dollars. We have received different projections from the Town as they refine their budget projections, placing our budget shortfall between ~4 and 5.4 million. We learned Tuesday (2/11) that if an override vote fails, funding for the town and school budget would be limited to a 1.5% increase each. For the schools that would be approximately 1 million dollars, leaving us with a 5.4 million dollar shortfall.

Q.  What is a debt exclusion override?

1. A debt exclusion results in a temporary tax increase above and beyond the Proposition 2½ limit to pay the debt service from bonding for a specific capital project, such as building a new school.  For debt exclusions, the debt service costs are added to the levy limit for the life of the debt only (typically between 10-30 years). Thus, unlike overrides, debt exclusions do not become part of the base used to calculate future years’ levy limits.

Q.  What is an operational override?

1. An operational override is a voter-approved, permanent property tax increase that allows for a municipality to tax at a rate above the cap imposed by Proposition 2½.  It is designed to provide a community with the ability to generate sufficient revenues to fund recurring costs that are likely to continue into the future, such as annual operating expenses for educational and municipal services.  

Q. Who sets the town budget for the school department?

1. The budget for every town department in Milton is set by Town Meeting.  Town Meeting votes each year at the annual town meeting in May to establish the town budget for the following year.  The budget town meeting votes on is one that is developed by the School Committee, generally in consultation with, and hopefully agreement with, the Select Board, the Town Administrator, and the Warrant Committee.

Q. How do Milton Public Schools and the School Committee monitor the school district’s budget?

1. Throughout the year MPS administration reviews current and anticipated expenditures and forecasts how their spending is tracking towards the overall budget number to ensure expenditures to not exceed the budget allocated by the town.  These forecasts are shared with the School Committee Finance Subcommittee through the use of quarterly reports.  The Finance Subcommittee provides feedback and asks questions to remain informed about the status of the budget.  A general overview of the committee’s discussions is then provided as a committee update at a full School Committee meeting.  When there are concerns with how the budget is tracking this is raised as a School Committee meeting in order to make the public aware of what is happening and begin discussions of actions that will need to be taken to close any projected gap.

Q. What is the current situation, in terms of a mid-year deficit projection for MPS FY25?

1. During the quarter 2 fiscal report to the School Committee Finance Subcommittee it was discussed that, if current spending patterns continue, MPS is projected to overspend its budget by ~$2,300,000.00 at the end of fiscal year 2025.  We presented to the Select Board on 2/11/25 that our current projected deficit is ~$650,000 This does not mean that MPS is currently over budget, just that if nothing were to change we would anticipate the district would be over budget at year end.  This forecasting is common practice and it is for exactly this reason, when the pacing of expenditures are running above the budget, that forecasting is done.  Now that the district is clearly aware of the projected gap it will need to work to close the gap by reducing expenditures before the end of the fiscal year.  The district has already identified steps to take that will shrink this projected deficit.

Q. What led to the current year projected financial gap for MPS?

1. The challenges with the FY25 budget actually begin in FY24 (and even before, but we will limit it to FY24).  In FY24, Milton Public Schools was allocated by Town Meeting a budget of ~$62,700,000.  At the end of the year Milton Public Schools had spent above this allocation due to a variety of factors, but primarily due to a structural deficit within specific line items in the budget (i.e. special education spending, utilities, teacher coverage, etc.) and due to drastic increases in special education out of district placement costs approved by the state which were finalized after the FY24 budget was established (these costs were increased by 14% in a single year by the state).  This resulted in MPS finishing the year ~$4,000,000.00 above budget.  This deficit was closed through the use of emergency one-time funds that were available to the district.  Unfortunately, due to the size of the gap the district was forced to use nearly all of the one time funds and still needed an additional allocation of ~$400,000.00 by the Select Board through the use of ARPA funds to close the remaining gap. In FY25 Milton Public Schools was allocated by Town Meeting a budget of ~$68,000,000.  This amount was set in February of 2024, prior to the knowledge of the end of year deficit.  This amount for FY25 ended up being less than a 2% increase above FY24 expenditures.  The impact of the ongoing structural deficits and ever increasing unfunded, mandated special education expenditures has continued into FY25 and resulted in a projected deficit that the district and School Committee is working to address.

Q. What is being done to address the projected budget gap for FY25?

1. The only path to cutting the projected budget gap in the current year is to reduce spending.  This is being done by freezing all non-essential purchasing and hiring.  It is also likely that some expected programming will need to be cut and that certain planned purchases/investments will need to be delayed due to the lack of funding.

Q. What would be the consequences of not passing an operational override for FY26?

1. The Town Administrator made a presentation to the School Committee Finance Subcommittee in December where he laid out that the town is projecting a gap between projected revenues and the expected costs of level service for FY26 of around $9,400,000.  This means that, without an override, the town and schools would need to jointly cut $9,400,000 from the budget.  All town departments would need to make drastic cuts to their services and significant staffing layoffs would be the only way to close the gap.  The exact impact in terms of dollar amount to each department, including the schools, is set by the town and not the schools.

Q. What would be the consequences of passing an override in FY26 for an amount providing less than level service funding?

1. Passing any override would provide additional funds to the town and the schools and reduce the impact of layoffs and service cuts.  That said, an override for an amount less than level service would mean residents’ taxes would go up but the town and schools would still be forced to implement cuts to services, including layoffs.

Q. What would be the result of passing a level service override in FY26?

1. A level-service override would fund the schools and the town at a level that would allow for them to operate at the same level they are currently.  It would mean no cuts to existing services, but it also means no additional funding for new or enhanced programs - such as the purchasing of a new literacy curriculum.  For FY26, the school district level service request is for ~$6,400,000.00.  This additional funding would cover current programming and address the historic structural deficit that has existed within the district budget.

Q. What are some of the needs the school district is looking to address above level-service funding for FY26?

1. The school district’s highest priority is to secure funding that addresses the historic structural deficit within the budget and transparently lay out to the town what the actual cost is of providing the programming they currently expect.  Above that there are a number of instructional initiatives that the district would like to fund such as implementation of a new ELA curriculum, additional professional development for instructional staff, an additional elementary teaching position to address lower elementary overcrowding, instructional coaches to support teachers in delivering rigorous instruction, additional support for English language learner instruction, the hiring of an HR Director to better support the recruitment and retention of exemplary staff (as well as to allow the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction to focus on teaching and learning and not HR).  A full list of needs requests were presented to the School Committee back in November and can be viewed HERE.  At this time it seems unlikely that the school district will be able to invest in all of these areas and the School Committee is hoping to work collaboratively with the Select Board to identify an override number that might support some of these needs as well as needs within town departments.