School Superintendent Discusses Budget With Select Board

Seekonk School Superintendent Rebecca Kidwell warned of possible budget reductions at Wednesday’s joint meeting with the Select Board. The school district is seeking a 4.6 percent increase in the FY’27 budget. Kidwell said preliminary figures from the Governor’s office show an increase in education funding for Seekonk.  

The Chapter 70 allocation is $150,000 higher than the current fiscal year. Charter tuition reimbursements also “increased significantly.”

Fixed costs, such as health insurance, electricity, transportation, and fuel, continue to increase “at a rate above two and a half percent.”

“Level services, non-salary costs, are the primary driver of these increases,” Kidwell continued. “The current budget projection, considering level services and mandatory updates to maintain learning, is a 4.61 percent increase, so about $1.5 million.”

The school department has fewer teachers, administrative assistants, building administrators, counseling staff, and custodians than this time last year. Kidwell also warned of the possible loss of federal entitlement grants, which provide $849,652 to the district. 

Kidwell outlined a list of possible, but not recommended, reductions if the town does not fund the schools as requested at the Spring Town Meeting. The public hearing on the budget will be held on March 16.

“We don’t want to discuss these things,” Kidwell said. “But we are now at the point of talking about things like elimination or reduction of full day kindergarten, elimination or reduction of electives such as music, art, and technology, elimination or reduction of activities like athletics, music, clubs and activities, elimination or reduction of transportation for students in grades 7 through 12 which is not required by law.”

Kidwell suggested fees could be charged for transportation, athletics, parking or driving, and preschool tuition. However, she explained raising those fees wouldn’t be enough to close the deficit in the budget.

“Athletic fees could make a substantial difference, but that is something this town has never wanted to do,” Kidwell noted. “We don’t want to go in this direction but we are at the bottom of the barrel and beginning to look at things like this if we have to make significant cuts going into this year.”

Meanwhile, Seekonk’s spending per pupil has not been keeping pace with larger spending increases in surrounding school districts such as Somerset-Berkeley, Swansea, and Dighton-Rehoboth.

“They’re all increasing at a faster rate than we are for school spending,” Kidwell said. “I’m sharing that with you as evidence of our responsibility, our stewardship, and our buying into fiscal conservatism as a town in general. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to, to some degree, increase spending as inflation and costs increase over time.”