School Committee Approves $150.9M FY27 Budget

School Committee · Meeting of February 12, 2026

Brookline's School Committee approved a $150,898,826 fiscal 2027 budget after a bid to restore cut staff positions failed on a tie. Superintendent Bella Wong said the proposal, an 8.1 million dollar increase over current spending, still leaves a $6,365,530 funding gap and embeds a net loss of 19.7 full-time positions. A motion by committee member Mariah to restore four educational technology specialist jobs and one Brookline High School librarian position deadlocked 4-4.

Dozens of speakers, including Pierce School technology specialist Sandy Sicard, who said "I've been asking myself, what do I not teach next year," and librarian Molly Wallner urged the board to protect the positions. The committee then voted 6-0, with two abstentions, to transmit the unchanged budget figure to the town, which has projected a $1,740,706 allocation increase for schools.

In the full story:

• The Full Story
• [00:25:25] — Superintendent Bella Wong
• [00:56:05] — Sandy Sicard, Pierce School Educational Technology Specialist
• [03:16:24] — Bob Weintraub, School Committee member
• Why It Matters
• Key Motions & Votes
• Source
• Brookline's community access TV: School Committee meeting, February 12, 2026
• The complete report: 809 words

Source: the School Committee meeting of February 12, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.