Shawsheen Tech School Committee Approves $34.7 Million FY23 Budget in 9-1 Vote

BILLERICA — March 1, 2022 — Shawsheen Tech School Committee adopts $34.7 million FY23 budget on a 9-1 vote, deferring a proposed administrative shake-up to the incoming superintendent. The committee voted March 1 to approve the budget subcommittee's recommended figure of $34,677,784 — roughly $30,000 below Superintendent Brad Jackson's proposal — after rejecting his three-part Initiative Two, which would have split the combined director of guidance and student services role, reclassified the food services supervisor as a non-union director, and converted a vacant security monitor position into an assistant principal for students. Member Taryn Gillis cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing the hiring season is active now and that Director of Student Services Jeff Albert, who has held the merged role for a year, should not be asked to wait another year for relief. Member Bob Peterson countered that "the new superintendent has to come in here and look at that department and find out how he wants to overhaul that department." Member community assessments were approved unanimously: Billerica at $10,885,000, Wilmington at $6,319,831 — up roughly $1 million, with half of that increase mandated by the state based on Wilmington's growing enrollment share — Tewksbury at $7,369,366, Bedford at $870,837, and Burlington at $2,667,214. A parent of a special education student addressed the committee during the budget discussion, saying her child had not received services because of the overloaded student services department. The committee is scheduled to revisit the administrative restructuring question at its March 22 meeting, by which point a new superintendent is expected to be named.