Insights on how to spend the Cambridge Public Schools’ proposed $268 million budget for fiscal year 2025 will arrive with a first community budget meeting (in-person and virtual) scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at Cambridge Rindge and Latin school. School Committee members are looking for them too.

City councillors, committee members and staff will also discuss budget priorities at a roundtable at 6 p.m. Monday.

Despite an increase of $23 million over last year’s budget, the district anticipates belt-tightening due to increased costs and the end of Covid relief funds, according to the district’s budget presentation by interim chief financial officer Ivy Washington on Jan. 23.

Unlike previous years, where budget increases covered current costs and new initiatives, most of the budget is already allocated with little funds for initiatives.

“One of the challenges that we have had historically here in Cambridge is that we start many, many things and we rarely ever stop anything,” superintendent Victoria Greer said, adding that the district needs the committee’s support if difficult decisions need to be made. 

Committee members expressed concerns about maintaining social-emotional supports and strategic tutoring, as well as new literacy and math curriculum, preparing students for science and social studies MCAS tests and the professional development that educators need to teach effectively.

Greer said that her team is meeting with staff throughout the district to ask for data on the costs and effectiveness of programs as they prepare for possible cuts.

Covid funds end

Members were concerned about how the district will pay for employee salaries, outside programs and supplies now funded by $4.6 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund funds.

Esser pays $990,000 for the equivalent of roughly eight full-time employees: career pathways program manager, director of social-emotional learning, early college program manager, special projects manager, summer/vacation week program manager, teacher special educators and three positions at the high school.

Other expenses covered include stipends for expanded learning time, math and English-language arts professional development and tutoring staff. Other items range from summer scholarships and health aides to Calculus Project payments and medical and instructional supplies.

Several committee members were startled that there are no concrete plans for the district to use the general fund budget to replace Esser for positions and programs.

It is “a little bit surprising to see that list,” member Rachel Weinstein said.

“We’re going to have to determine if we’re going to continue some of these things that are on Esser. We will have to determine what’s on the general fund that we might stop in order to make that transition,” Greer said. “What are we going to stop, start or continue?” 

Her team is reviewing staff proposals in light of district goals, desired outcomes and data, Greer said.

Enrollment projections 

The district enrollment projections for the upcoming fiscal and school year are stable for most grades and programs based on reliable current and historical data, Washington said, with no dramatic changes in the number of classrooms or programs. District enrollment remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. 

Enrollment may be buoyed by a rise in English-language learners. The projections show a slight uptick, to 11 percent from 8.2 percent. Growth may come from a new Cambridge Preschool Program and kindergarten lottery and students staying since December at the state’s Safety Net Family Shelter in East Cambridge.

The Cambridge Preschool Program enrollment period ended Jan. 15, and the district is sorting through applicant data, which “may have impacts that we don’t yet know,” Washington said. Additional enrollment information will be available from the kindergarten lottery in coming weeks.

Greer said that while enrollment in some schools has decreased and some teachers have left, the actual number of staff has remained stable. The district may need additional educators trained in teaching students who are learning English.

Students from shelter

It was expected that families at the shelter would move to other housing within days, but many have been at the shelter much longer. Federal law requires that children living in a community enroll in school, beginning with preschool, regardless of their circumstances. The district opened a registration center for them at the Kennedy-Longfellow elementary school, with students registering beginning in mid-January, Greer said.

Mayor and committee chair E. Denise Simmons said the 200-person shelter is “up to capacity” with around 55 families that include 100 potential students enrolling in the district, and asked if the proposed budget will meet the needs of these students.

“Most of those students are multilingual and we need to understand their language proficiency to determine what those needs are,” Greer said. Additional language support or social services may be needed “knowing that they have come a long way and traveled very far.”

Language-learner concentrations

The short-term challenges will be placing any ELL students in schools, Greer said, and adjusting the budget if additional staff or services are needed.

“We’ve been trying to think strategically to because we do not want to overtax any one school with high-needs students,” Greer said. “We do understand we want these our children once they come here … we need to take care of them just as any other kind of student.”

The primary programs for language-learner students are at two elementary schools: Graham & Parks (33 percent of its students) and the Kennedy-Longfellow with 38 percent. The Darby Vassall Upper School at 12 percent. These students make up 10 percent or less of students enrolled at all other schools.

City support

The City Council will support the schools, but its fiduciary responsibility is to support programs that serve all residents, Simmons said.

Before the district considered asking for additional city funds, it must “apply some introspection” and collect hard data to support the effectiveness of its programs, Simmons said.

City councillors were told in December that a period of austerity that’s been warned about for years for Cambridge has arrived, and that elected officials have to start setting priorities for what projects get a go-ahead for the next five to 10 years and what must be scaled back or halted.

“I would never say the door was closed,” Simmons said. “I would just say that’s a very delicate conversation to have, because of the larger implications across the city around funding. I want us to have a vision of those children and ask ‘Are we doing the best for you?’ Because at the end of the day, I think that’s our responsibility.”