WORCESTER – A Worcester School Committee meeting on Thursday, June 20, that ran nearly six hours, ended with the committee approving a $485 million budget for the 2025 fiscal year. School committee members approved the budget by a 6-3 vote, with members Maureen Binienda, Dianna Biancheria, and Kathleen Roy in opposition.
The fiscal year started July 1, 2024, and ends June 30, 2025.
The approved Worcester Public Schools (WPS) budget cuts several positions from the previous year to close a $22 million funding gap for the upcoming fiscal year. Those cuts include the positions of 86 classroom teachers, 70 student support professionals, five psychologists, and 22 administrative roles.
The cuts in classroom teacher positions include 31 voluntary resignations and 12 retirements. Layoffs affect no teacher with over three years of experience, according to the administration of the Superintendent of Worcester Public Schools, Dr. Rachel Monárrez.
This is the third part of a series on the Worcester School Committee during its budgeting process for fiscal year 2025.
See our first story in this series, Worcester School Committee’s “Keep Failing” Caucus, for more on the cause of the deficit and the results of policies of the past that Binienda and Biancheria repeatedly advocated for in the June 20 meeting.
The second piece in this series, Administrative Cost Increases at Worcester Schools: 0.61%, reviews claims of an explosion of administrative spending by Monárrez’s administration, and presents data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), which tracks administrative costs for every school system in the state, which contradicts those claims.
The fourth piece in this series, School Climate, Culture, and Some Don’t Want to Learn, covers the dispute over the WPS Office of Climate and Culture, the approach to student behavior management of the administration of Superintendent Dr. Rachel Monárrez, and a school committee member longing for more long-term suspensions.
Facility Rentals Should Only Benefit Students at Newer Schools
During the budget meeting on June 20, Binienda took a position that would result in additional resources for the most modern schools in the district, while denying students at other schools the benefits of those resources.
The discussion involved the rental of school department facilities by outside groups, and a single position that coordinates those rentals.
Deputy Superintendent and Chief Financial and Operations Officer of WPS Brian Allen explained to the school committee that Worcester Public School facilities are widely underutilized. One major driver of the lack of outside rentals is the price the district charges. Allen said the district recently surveyed surrounding communities and found the pricing by Worcester Schools far exceeds those in other communities.
This Week in Worcester reviewed agendas from school committee meetings back to July 2022, when Monárrez became superintendent and did not locate the committee previously discussing rent pricing structure. It appears the pricing structure was inherited from Binienda’s time as superintendent.
According to Allen, the vast majority of the rentals of WPS happen at the high schools with modern facilities. That includes Worcester Technical High School (2006), North High School (2011), and South High Community School (2021). With the opening of the new Doherty Memorial High School in the upcoming school year, the administration expects it to draw interest from event producers and community groups, as well.
Allen told This Week in Worcester that the district may not generate more revenue from the rentals, due to upcoming price decreases, but that making WPS facilities accessible to community events is important to the administration.
With additional volume expected after changes to pricing, and a new school opening, the job of coordinating those rentals became larger. The person currently coordinating rentals for the district earns $52,000 annually. With the role becoming larger, the administration sought to retain that person.
Considering the budget deficit the district faced, the administration sought to fund the position through revenue from rentals. To do so, the district would control a portion of rental revenue. The remainder would remain under the control of the individual school.
Allen also explained that an account dedicated to rental operations currently has a balance of about $400,000.
Here are some of the comments by Allen and Monárrez explaining their position to the committee.
“When I was Superintendent”
As highlighted in previous parts of this series, Binienda again referenced the policies of the past in opposing this change. She said “to just give it to someone else,” referencing the responsibilities of this position.
Binienda and Biancheria took several angles in opposition to this change.
Both repeatedly demanded the position is not a full-time job. The expected increase in volume and an additional school opening as a viable rental option appeared to have no effect on their consideration.
Biancheria appeared to be angered because she had previously booked an event through a school directly, and may have to coordinate with the administration in the future. She also claimed she tried the book an event at a point she did not disclose, at a school she did not disclose, and they were booked. It’s not clear what point she attempted to make.
Binienda also disputed Allen’s statement about the amount of funds rental operations had in reserve, then claimed she had knowledge of what amount one school, South High, could generate in a school year. The new South High opened less than a year before Binienda’s contract as superintendent expired.
Allen joined Worcester Public Schools in 1999, previously serving at Worcester Technical School until it was integrated into the school district.
Binienda also declared that the school where a facility rental took place should control all the revenue generated by those rentals.
State and local tax revenue are the primary funding sources for Worcester Public Schools. The buildings the school department manages are public buildings.
The practical effect of Binienda and Biancheria’s position is that students who happen to attend one of four high schools should have more resources available to them. If your child attends Burncoat High School or one of the middle schools in the district, they deserve less.
Binienda raised a motion to cut this person’s job, but withdrew it before a vote took place.
If you think this rhetoric was insulting to the current Worcester Public Schools employee in that job, Binienda and Biancheria were just getting started. We’ll cover that in the next piece in this series.
See the comments by Binienda and Biancheria on rentals and trying to cut this job, below.
(Editor’s Note: A previous version of this piece misidentified the name of Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen and has been corrected.)
