Worcester School Committee starts talking about FY27

I'm not able to attend this evening--training another committee!--but I did want to note that the Worcester School Committee is receiving their first look at FY27 (next school year's budget) at tonight's meeting. You can find the presentation here. 

This has now become when we also get the first look at the cover art of the budget book, which I always appreciate: 

enjoying the spooky overtones here; are we foreshadowing FY28?

The high-level news is not bad: 

That's close enough to be about even when we're talking numbers this large.

Here's how the numbers work out:

We will hear, no doubt, from the city about the city's required 5.1% increase; don't miss that the state's contribution is going up by 6.3%. 

Also note that here broken out is the additional contribution for the current fiscal year towards the district meeting net school spending, which matters quite a bit. We don't, here, have a report on if the city will meet required spending for the coming year, as we won't know that until the city puts their cards on the table. The question is if the city will own up to the fact that transportation costs will increase, and need to be covered in order to meet the requirement. 

And here is the thing: THIS IS THE FINAL YEAR OF STUDENT OPPORTUNITY ACT IMPLEMENTATION. So this following chart MATTERS A LOT: 

Because this is it. That line of $18.4 of SOA this year is it. Next year and thereafter, unless there is a change, it's the $15.4M. And, as the cost increases for this year, for example, are $27M, that would leave a gap of $11.6M to start the discussion.

This worries me. It should worry us all.