Dracut school leaders are staring down a budget crunch so steep it could end full-day kindergarten, scale back bus service to only the youngest students and even shut the doors at Greenmont Avenue Elementary. Officials say the potential cuts are meant to close a growing structural gap headed into fiscal 2027, while parents, staff and town officials brace for choices that would pull services away from students if new revenue does not arrive.
At a May 11 School Committee meeting, Superintendent Steven Stone laid out a menu of cost-saving moves that included drawing down revolving and restricted accounts, eliminating nine staff positions, hiking transportation and athletics fees and limiting busing to grades kindergarten through six. As reported by Lowell Sun, the committee is also weighing a full closure of Greenmont Avenue School, and district leaders warned that shutdown could happen whether or not voters sign off on the MSBA-backed Campbell school project. According to the reporting, Stone told the committee he was trying to find cuts that would do the least damage inside classrooms.
Per Dracut Public Schools, the School Committee will hold a public hearing on the FY27 budget on Wednesday at Harmony Hall, with detailed FY27 budget documents already posted for residents to review. The hearing is designed to give community members a chance to weigh in before the committee votes on specific actions, and the district website also offers meeting packets and recordings for anyone who cannot attend in person.
Where The Money Would Come From
The administration’s main alternatives lean heavily on the district’s revolving and restricted accounts, including Parker School rental funds, the interdistrict school choice account, the pre-kindergarten fund and a buildings account, among others. Lowell Sun reports that those accounts currently hold roughly $860,508 in the Parker fund, $803,957 in school choice, $370,148 in pre-K and $493,594 in buildings. The approved budget already assumes that $916,808 will be drawn from revolving funds, and the superintendent cautioned that a full drawdown would total about $2,528,208, according to the paper. Officials also floated using an additional $317,050 from a likely Chapter 70 increase to help plug the FY27 gap, the outlet reported.
Campbell Project And What Closing Greenmont Would Mean
All of this is unfolding while Dracut pursues a consolidation plan that would replace Campbell and Greenmont with a single new Joseph A. Campbell Elementary School. Earlier this year the Massachusetts School Building Authority signed off on a grant award for the project. MSBA documentation describes a new K–5 facility with pre-K on the existing Campbell site, with Greenmont’s students slated to move into the new building once it opens. District officials say the capital project is meant to tackle long-standing building problems, but the current budget shortfall could still force shorter-term operational changes before construction wraps up.
Not Just A Dracut Problem
Dracut’s money troubles are part of a wider pattern in Massachusetts, where multiple school systems have turned to staff cuts, program reductions and building shakeups as costs climb faster than state aid and local revenue. For example, Boston’s school budget this spring included staff reductions and grade reconfigurations aimed at closing a multi-million dollar gap, according to reporting by WBUR. Local officials argue that smaller communities like Dracut have fewer tools to raise money under Proposition 2½, which can make revolving funds and fee hikes tempting, if imperfect, stopgaps.
School Committee members say they plan to review the administration’s options and take public comment at Wednesday’s hearing before deliberating on any formal votes. The district’s FY27 documents, including the specific line-item choices now in play, are posted for residents on the school website, according to Dracut Public Schools. Committee leaders have stressed that they want to preserve classroom staff where they can, while acknowledging that any move will carry tradeoffs for transportation, enrichment and building operations.
Residents who cannot make it to Harmony Hall will be able to stream the meeting or catch up later through recordings on the district’s website. After taking in public input and working through the FY27 material, the School Committee is expected to finalize its budget decisions in the weeks ahead.
