By Carol Britton Meyer

During a record-short meeting this week, the school committee held a public hearing about the proposed Fiscal 2024 Hull Public Schools budget, which lasted for about two minutes since there was no one in the audience to make a comment or ask a question.

“Holding a formal hearing on the school budget is a requirement of Massachusetts state law,” Chair Stephanie Peters said.

The proposed budget represents a 3% increase over the FY23 figure.

“Town Manager [Philip Lemnios] recommended [this percentage for an increase], and that’s what we have provided,” Superintendent of Schools Judith Kuehn said.

Peters noted that there have been a number of budget discussions, including a recent presentation to the advisory board, and that the FY24 school budget proposal is posted on the district’s website.

The proposed budget totals $17.33 million, which represents a $504,895 increase over the FY23 figure of $16.8 million.

The proposal sets forth district priorities, which include “celebrating the accomplishments of our students, educators, staff, and district,” implementing Phase 1 of the district’s reconfiguration plan, and developing a blueprint for implementation of Phase 2.

Other priorities include ensuring that Hull’s schools are “diverse, inclusive, accepting, welcoming, and a safe place for everyone,” and refining and streamlining the district’s multi-tiered systems of support for academic and social emotional development, among others.

Of the FY24 proposed budget, 76.64 % is comprised of salaries; 7.14%, special education non-salary costs; 4.51%, utilities; 2.82%, non-salary maintenance; 4.53%, transportation; 1.37%, technology; and all other non-salary costs total 2.99%.

The proposed school budget represents 57.5% of the total town budget.

Further budget priorities include expanding the pre-kindergarten classroom for four-year-olds and expanding before- and after-school care for the same age group.

In other business at the meeting:

* David Twombly was appointed to represent the school committee on the seven-member town manager semifinalist committee, which will work with the consultant hired to conduct the search (Community Paradigm Associates) to interview the semifinalist candidates for the position. Lemnios is retiring at the end of June. The deadline for applications to serve on the committee was April 10. The select board reviewed letters of interest at its April 12 meeting.

* The school committee voted not to offer school choice while HPS is in the process of putting Phase 1 of the Best Educational Use of School Facilities Plan (consolidation of the town’s three schools) into place, nor during Phase 2, but to reconsider this decision sometime after the consolidation plan has been fully implemented.

“That way we can see what our enrollments are,” Kuehn said. “If a grade has lower than expected enrollment, we might let a couple of students [switch to HPS], but we want to protect our class sizes.”

School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs, including in other districts.

* The implementation of Phase 1 of the consolidation plan is “going well,” Kuehn reported. “There’s a lot of thoughtful and strategic planning. Everyone seems to be impressed with the positive team-building.”

Phase 1 calls for housing pre-K through 6 at Jacobs Elementary School, grades 7 and 8 at Memorial Middle School, and grades 9 through 12 at the high school for the 2023-24 school year.

Phase 2, once approved by the school committee, would implement the final reconfiguration, where the Jacobs School would house grades pre-K to 7, and the high school grades 8 to 12, beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

* The committee will review Kuehn’s self-evaluation, which she recently submitted for its review, rating herself as “proficient.” Committee members will submit their comments by April 19 and then discuss the results at the April 24 meeting.

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