Following the Oct. 6 All Board Meeting during which the Wellesley Select Board aired plans to split the town and school budgets at Annual Town Meeting in the spring, the School Committee debriefed on this proposal at its meeting the next night (see Wellesley Media recording about 2 hours, 10 minutes in). School Committee members and school leadership have no shortage of concerns about the plan, including that the setup could put the town and schools at odds.

The plan is to separate the school budget, which is by far the largest individual department one, and include shared expenses like health care in it. As is, “it’s hard for people to understand the all-in cost of schools,” Select Board Chair Marjorie Freiman said during the All Board Meeting. The idea with the change is to make the budget process more focused and transparent at a time when people in town are raising questions about a rising school budget even as enrollment declines, according to the Select Board.

A motion to split the budgets that was put forward at 2025 Annual Town Meeting by a Town Meeting member won support from others, but failed to pass, with some arguing the motion came too late in the process. Town Meeting member Gig Babson rose to speak during that meeting to provide historical context, explaining that she introduced the concept of the Omnibus budget article in 1990 when she was moderator. She said at the time there were typically 70 or 80 warrant articles, at least ten for separate departmental budgets.

School Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch says she has had chair and vice chair meetings with the Select Board, and topics such as the neighborhood school model and class size guidelines have been among the policy issues raised within the context of discussing budget efficiencies.

The School Committee has shared its perspective with the Select Board that splitting out the school budget doesn’t change Town Meeting’s ability to ask questions, discuss it, or amend it (Town Meeting can make an amendment to increase or decrease the school budget, but not make amendments to specific line items). Regarding transparency, Ofenloch defended the lengthy School Committee budget book as detailed and searchable, and referenced numerous public engagement opportunities regarding the budget.

One lingering concern for Ofenloch and other School Committee members regarding the new process is what would happen if either separate budget motion failed, and what the downstream impacts would be to other budgets. Fellow committee member Linda Chow described this issue as “the elephant in the room.”

Ofenloch also said the logistics of splitting the budgets, and folding in shared expenses, could result in additional work for the finance teams. Ofenloch said she requested a joint meeting with the Select Board to discuss such concerns further, but that this was not agreed upon.

Chow said she had hoped for such a joint meeting since “this does represent a pretty significant change. This is a structural change to the way Town Meeting and the budget approval process is run.”

An overriding concern for Chow is that “by setting it up this way I worry, and I’m already feeling this way, it’s pitting the town against the schools…” What’s more, it won’t allow for one debate on what is ultimately one town budget. Adding in the shared expenses could make things less clear, she said, and result in going down “a rat hole.”

Committee member Christina Horner pointed out that what might seem transparent to the committee “may not be transparent to others… it’s about perspective.”

Ofenloch said she appreciated this point, and noted that some of the trend analysis being shared by the School Department and School Committee is intended to present information in a different way to possibly address transparency concerns from the public.

Wellesley Public Schools Supt. David Lussier said it’s only appropriate that the school budget, being as large as it is, would receive more scrutiny than other budgets and warrants extra effort on the part of the school team to make the rationale behind it as clear as possible to the Advisory Committee, Town Meeting, and the general public.

Where Lussier said he has concerns about the new process in that “I have faith in our government in how it’s set up. School Committee sets policy, you’re elected to do that. Town Meeting is not the place to set new policy or to conduct a program review as we’re bringing forward a budget for approval…” He said school leadership looks forward to explaining its budget regardless of the form in which the process takes place.

The School Committee has directed the administration to prepare three separate fiscal year 2027 budgets, starting with one that is 3% larger than last year’s based on Select Board guidance. The Wellesley Public Schools administration will also prep a budget based on providing level services and another that reflects strategic planning initiatives.

Advisory Committee also analyzing school costs

A separate and complementary analysis of school costs is being undertaken by the Advisory Committee, the appointed body that vets Town Meeting articles before they go to the floor. This is not a Select Board initiative, nor connected with its decision about splitting the budget.

At the end of FY25, then-Chair Patti Quigley mentioned in her year-end report that there should be an analysis done of the schools to address the ongoing question of why costs continue to rise even as enrollment declines. Current Chair Madison Riley decided to take on the analysis with the help of the operations administrator.

They are pulling public WPS data from the budgets submitted to Town Meeting for Article 8 votes over the last 10 years, and seeking trends in costs over that time. “Each year WPS presents a budget that is detailed but is essentially a snapshot of what is needed for the coming fiscal year. It does not help Town Meeting to put that request in context of historical TRENDS in costs over time,” Riley writes. The goal is to reveal underlying reasons for increasing costs, he says.

Riley’s aiming to present a synthesis of data to Advisory by early to mid-December, and expects the work will be included as part of Advisory’s considerations of Article 8 when it reports to Town Meeting next spring.