School committee considers budget cuts after enrollment drop

KINGSTON — The School Committee told Select Board Chair Eric Crone that it would consider proposing a new fiscal year 2027 budget with smaller increases over 2026 after he urged them to cut costs to help avoid a Proposition 2½ override vote, citing an enrollment drop of 60 students for this school year.

During the school committee’s public budget hearing Feb. 2, Crone asked the committee to present a budget proposal with a 3 or 3.5% increase, rather than the current proposal’s 4.82% increase. He said that rising health insurance costs were pushing the town toward needing an override vote, which he worried would not pass.

“If medical insurance comes in at somewhere near the first pass number of about 14% increase, I believe the town will have to go for two and a half override,” Crone said. “If some way we get that medical insurance increase down closer to seven, eight percent, then I'm challenging the selectmen, finance committee, and now the schools to work with me to try to get to the point where we don't need a 2½ override.”

A 3.5% increase in the schools’ budget would be about $200,000 less than the proposed 4.82% increase. Crone predicted that that decrease would not “materially affect” average classroom sizes.

The 4.82% increase budget maintains level services from fiscal year 2026. The school committee also drafted a budget with a 2.5% increase, which School Committee Member Jeanne Coleman said would create class sizes of 23 to 26 students in most grades and class sizes of 20 to 21 in kindergarten.

“We do have some wiggle room,” said Sarah Hickey, director of finance and operations for Silver Lake Regional School District.

School committee members said that they would not officially adjust their budget proposal until they had more information about the town’s budget and state aid.

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