In a first, the School Committee and the City Council were scheduled to hold a public joint meeting last night prior to taking up the mayor’s FY 26 budget starting next week.

School Committee Chair Shaun Galligan said Monday he suggested the meeting after getting school finance questions from council members.

 Galligan said the purpose of the meeting is to answer council questions such as “what makes up our budget…what goes into it.”

 Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur, chair of the finance committee, said Monday he wants to know why schools didn’t foresee an operating deficit of more than $7 million in the current until late December.  Ladouceur also wants to hear what measures the committee took to avert additional deficits in the 2026 budget and going forward. Ward 6 councilman and vice-chair of finance, William Muto, who has dug deep into school finances has similar questions.

Galligan, on the other hand, looks to the meeting as an opportunity to show the community the size of the school system and the need for more city funds than Mayor Frank Picozzi has budgeted. The school committee submitted a $198 million budget request. Mayor Picozzi shaved it down to $194.4 million.

“We have the most buildings, the most customers and the most employees,” he said. Considering an enrollment of 8,000 and 180 school days, he calculated schools serve 1.4 million customers or “students” annually. The workforce numbers 1,400.

In his budget message where Picozzi says schools are getting an additional 2.5 percent in funding, Galligan says that $3.7 million increase is due to state aid and, in fact, the city is level funding schools.

“He’s taking credit for the state allocation,” Galligan charged.

And what happens if the schools don’t get a bigger chuck of city dollars?

“[We’re] already operating a very lean budget,” Galligan said.  Without more funds, he said the committee would need to look at discretionary spending that includes special needs, sports, arts and after school programs.

“When you’re down to your last buck do you buy toilet paper or paper towels …this is going to be a conflict budget season,” he said. In the name of full transparency, Galligan said he aims to “bring the community along,” by disclosing the issue.

 Picozzi also faces an issue.

He said Tuesday the city doesn’t have the money to increase the school budget with school bond interest payments linked to the new high schools kicking in. Already, he notes, his proposed budget calls for the use of $3.7 million in reserves  and to dip deeper in reserves that are about $31 million would jeopardize bond ratings with the potential of hiking borrowing costs for the schools,