The 2026-2027 EL town budget failed to get enough votes to pass in the referendum held May 21, sending the budget process back to the Board of Finance for another round of revisions and public discussion.
The original proposal went through multiple rounds of cuts, originally including a reduction of $1.2 million to the Board of Education budget. That money was partly restored after a public hearing held on April 27, where many students, staff, and community members spoke on the importance of more funding.
Now, the Board of Finance must revise the proposed budget once again, and will hold another public hearing in the ELMS cafeteria tonight at 5:30 p.m.
Hernandez stand outside before the April 27 BOF meeting
The revised budget will go back out to referendum June 4. If it fails a second time, the process will repeat every two weeks until voters approve a budget. Many are now concerned that the money restored to the Board of Education will be cut once again to accomodate the will of EL voters.
These cuts would affect students and staff, with the original proposal including the possible elimination of two elementary school teaching positions, five paraeducator positions, an ELHS guidance counselor, the ELHS library assistant, a reduced MTSS teaching position, a school bus, two building substitutes, and several other important resources. At the April 27 public hearing, NCS kindergarten teacher Julie Horner spoke about the effect losing a teacher would have on young students, explaining that class sizes at NCS could go up to 19 or 20 per class.
“There will not be enough support in the classroom. When we cut people, we are hurting our children,” Ms. Horner said.
ELHS librarian Jeannine Barber emphasized the importance of maintaining support staff in school libraries.
“Our media literacy skills are so critical… our libraries are of little use if there’s not enough personnel to help students access them,” Ms. Barber said.
EL Teacher’s Association President Scott Mahon says that the district must begin approaching budget challenges differently moving forward. “Year after year, we’re saying the same things. Instead, let’s try to start working on solutions to budgets that are going to continue to get smaller, while costs continue to get higher,” Mr. Mahon said.
