Plympton School Committee approves $4.6 million FY27 budget, cutting three staff positions

PLYMPTON — March 9, 2026 — Plympton School Committee votes 4-1 to approve a stripped-down $4.6 million FY27 budget that cuts hours for three staff positions. The committee approved a $4,624,750 local appropriation for the Dennett Elementary School on March 9, requiring $122,795 in cuts from a level-service budget after a last-minute out-of-district special education placement costing approximately $140,000 blew open a gap that earlier projections had not anticipated. The reductions include cutting the school psychologist and librarian each from 1.0 to 0.8 FTE and the speech therapist from 0.8 to 0.6 FTE, after $62,000 in non-personnel cuts — to curriculum, technology, and supplies — proved insufficient. Teacher and union co-president Liz Goodman told the committee the speech therapist currently provides literacy intervention for nine non-IEP students and four weekly kindergarten groups, and that at 0.6 FTE "she'd have enough time to see the kids on her caseload and that would maybe be it." Chair Jason Fraser cautioned that the state Department of Education has told him it may not be able to process rural aid grant applications this year due to agency staffing cuts — a program the district is counting on for $60,000 of its projected revenue.