Lincoln School Committee Closes Lincoln Budget Gap, Leaves Hanscom $572,000 Short

LINCOLN -- November 20, 2014, Lincoln School Committee closes a $260,000 Lincoln campus budget gap for FY16 but leaves a $572,000 Hanscom shortfall unresolved. At the November 20 meeting, Superintendent Becky McFaul and Administrator for Business and Finance Buck Creel presented reduction lists totaling $261,045 on the Lincoln campus and $375,946 on the Hanscom campus, which together fall well short of the Hanscom gap of $947,845, driven in part by a $393,395 Band 3 versus Band 4 enrollment reimbursement mismatch under the district's Department of Defense contract. Lincoln reductions include eliminating grades 3 through 6 summer math camps affecting roughly 68 students, dropping two B-level basketball teams, and disconnecting four campus pay phones confirmed by Lincoln police to have had no emergency use in recent years. Administrator for Student Services Stephanie Powers reported 10 students currently placed out of district on the Hanscom campus at costs of $55,000 to $75,000 each annually, with projections rising to 14 next year. The committee voted unanimously to approve the amended EDCO articles of agreement and will return December 4 for an executive session on the Hanscom contract and further gap-closing deliberations, with a Finance Committee presentation scheduled for December 10.