Lincoln School Committee opens FY24 budget with $121,000 in base gaps

LINCOLN -- December 1, 2022, Lincoln School Committee opens FY24 budget talks with twin gaps above the 2.5 percent guideline. Superintendent Becky McFaul presented a preliminary $13.1 million Lincoln request and a $17.79 million Hanscom request, leaving base gaps of roughly $51,000 and $70,000, requiring 3.44 percent and 3.82 percent increases respectively. Business administrator Mary Ellen Norman attributed much of the pressure to a state-set 14 percent jump in private special education tuitions, calling double-digit increases unseen "pre-2008." Medicaid reimbursement rose from $14,300 to $82,800. Administrators also pitched $866,303 in Lincoln improvement initiatives and $242,000 at Hanscom, led by a new K-8 instructional coaching model and an embedded school adjustment counselor for the Foundations program. The committee unanimously appointed Susan Taylor to the new Community Center Building Committee and ratified a $2,839,370.28 warrant. A budget vote is set for Jan. 26.