Lexington has long been held up as a gold standard for public education, with well-funded schools and students who have among the highest test scores in Massachusetts.
But like many other school districts in the state, Lexington is confronting an acute shortage of money, and its plan to rein in spending will result in considerable changes to classrooms come September.
The school district this week announced the full-time equivalent about 65 teachers, classroom aides, and other staff positions would be eliminated, and that it will issue non-renewal letters to about 160 early career educators. Lexington has the full-time equivalent of approximately 600 teachers, according to state data.
The move comes less than six months after Lexington voters approved a tax increase to fund construction of a new high school, which at some $660 million is one of the most expensive ever in Massachusetts. The town is also bracing for an onslaught of new housing that could lead to more children in the school system.
“What Lexington is facing isn’t the exception — it’s the rule. Half of Massachusetts school districts are wrestling with the same pressures we are," Lexington Superintendent Julie Hackett said in a statement to the Globe about the challenges to the operating budget.
Separately she also acknowledged the cuts, first reported by the Lexington Observer, have an inescapable human element.
“Behind every staffing decision is a real person, and we have not arrived at these choices lightly, knowing the impact they carry,” Hackett wrote in a message to the community Wednesday.
Lexington is only the latest district to reduce staff for the coming school year. On Wednesday, the Boston School Committee approved a budget for next year that includes cutting 300 to 400 positions. Chelsea school officials are proposing to lose about 70 positions, while Brookline school officials warn they could eliminate more than 200 positions if a $23.25 million tax hike fails at the polls in May.
The financial hardships in many districts are largely being driven by declining enrollment and rising costs for salaries, health insurance coverage, utilities, special education, and transportation.
But Lexington’s budget problems stand apart in one unique way: the new $660 million high school, which would replace a crowded campus dating to the 1950s.
The Select Board determined that since voters approved a temporary tax increase in December for the high school construction, there likely would be no appetite this spring for another tax increase to keep town and school services at current levels.
The cuts announced this week aim to balance next year’s proposed budget of $151.7 million, a 3.9 percent increase over this year’s spending level.
Hackett was hopeful the cuts ultimately would not be as severe as announced. In her message to the school community, she noted the district anticipates a majority of the 160 early career educators receiving non-renewal letters will eventually be invited back, depending upon how the job cuts shake out and vacancies created by retirements or resignations. The district typically has 40 to 50 positions turnover annually.
Moreover, the impending staffing cuts come after more than two dozen positions were eliminated last year.
Robin Strizhak, president of the Lexington Education Association, the union for teachers and other staff, said the staffing cuts are probably the biggest to hit the district since the 1990s or even the 1980s. She said it will likely result in larger class sizes and potentially less personalized feedback from teachers if they are stretched too thin.
“It’s a shock, especially during a time when mental health for kids” is a major concern, she said in an interview Friday. “We need the resources and staffing to support them.”
Maintaining adequate school funding has been a growing concern as Lexington braces for an influx of families into approximately 1,600 new apartments and condominiums that are expected to be built in the coming years. Fueling the development is a decision by Town Meeting members in 2023 to rezone about 225 acres to comply with the the state’s MBTA Communities Act, which requires communities to encourage more multifamily housing.
The impending wave of new housing has led to second thoughts about the rezoning and intense debates about how many additional students could end up enrolling in the schools, to the point where it could reverse the current trend of declining enrollment and even lead to a surge that could overwhelm the new high school once it opens in a few years.
Many parents were stunned to learn of the job cuts and questioned why the district didn’t disclose the information sooner. The district initially announced in January that a few dozen positions would likely be cut as part of an effort to plug a $4.7 million shortfall in next year’s proposed budget, according to a report in the Lexington Observer.
“I was really surprised by the numbers,” said Qinsi Zheng, parent of a fifth-grader in the Lexington Public Schools. “The cuts are more dramatic and severe than other neighboring districts facing similar challenges.”
The district, he said, should have involved the community more in finding solutions to the budget problems, such as utilizing new technologies to reduce costs in finance, IT, and other backroom operations.
“To have many closed-door discussions and then to announce it at the last minute is not the way to do it,” he said.
Some parents questioned why district leaders didn’t warn the community about the potential for mass layoffs before December’s vote on the high school construction project. Irene, a mother of two children in the school system who asked not to use her last name for fear of retaliation, said she voted for the project but may have voted differently had she known layoffs were on the horizon.
“The building will provide a very good environment for the students and teachers,” she said. But she added, “The teachers are key.”
James Vaznis can be reached at james.vaznis@globe.com. Follow him @globevaznis.