Dear School Committee members,

We, the undersigned Brookline stakeholders, have lost confidence in the ability of the PSB administration to manage the massive, roughly $8M, projected fiscal year 2026 PSB budget deficit in a way that genuinely prioritizes our students.

At the Feb. 13th school committee meeting, parent after parent spoke of the importance of protecting student-facing staff positions and prioritizing students when balancing the budget. Instead, the cuts proposed by the administration included:

• A death sentence of our exceptional grades 4-8 conservatory program.
• The elimination of middle school sports.
• The elimination of summer programs that serve vulnerable students.
• The elimination of about half of first grade teacher aides.
• A reduction in the number of teachers at BHS.

In response to this proposal, several school committee members raised questions about other possible avenues for savings, including potential savings within the central administration offices. Answering this line of inquiry, at minute 4hr19min of the meeting, Dr. Guillory replied: “I don’t see significant dollars in this as currently suggested… looking at central raises, central office… I don’t see that being several million dollars.”

While Dr. Guillory replied in terms of “significant dollars” and “several million”, the proposed cuts that would directly impact students start at just $100,000 – middle school sports. That is roughly equivalent to the salary costs of just one central office staff member, yet the impact on our middle school students would be immeasurable.

The PSB’s central administration is comprised of the offices of the Superintendent, Teaching & Learning, Student Services, Educational Equity, and Administration & Finance. We do not accept the administration’s claim that no significant cuts can be identified in any of these offices, especially since the number of central office staff has substantially increased since 2013-14 – a school year that had almost identical enrollment levels to the present time. Nor do we accept the claim that the proposed cuts are the best possible path to a balanced budget that prioritizes students’ needs and wellbeing above all else.

Our trust is further eroded by the opacity and confusion surrounding the circumstances that led PSB into this massive deficit - resulting in the commissioning by the town of an external audit to answer questions that should have been readily and transparently answerable by the administration.

We therefore ask that you (1) unequivocally reject the package of cuts proposed by the Superintendent’s office for the 2026 fiscal year, (2) insist that a new balanced budget be proposed, one that genuinely prioritizes our students, and (3) do not vote on the 2026 fiscal year PSB budget until the results of the audit are made public, which is expected to happen well before the budget vote deadline (the start of Town Meeting, May 27th 2025).

School Committee chair Andy Liu ended the Feb 13th meeting with an announcement that the Select Board is launching a study committee to prepare for the next override vote, which will include a component for PSB operating expenses. While an override is just at the planning stage for now, we hope and expect that the first step of any such plan will be restoring the trust of the voters in the PSB administration’s ability to manage the PSB budget, with a proposal that genuinely prioritizes our students.

[Please note: The donation page that will appear after you sign is for donations to *ipetition*, not for PSB or the organizers of this petition.]