Mansfield School Committee Approves $60.8 Million Budget Amid Cuts Outcry

MANSFIELD -- April 30, 2026, Mansfield students and parents flooded a School Committee meeting Wednesday to oppose proposed cuts to the district's orchestra program and early literacy staff as the board approved a $60,863,231 FY2027 school budget, a figure that represents less real spending than the year before once items shifted back from the capital plan are accounted for. The budget reflects $2.4 million in reductions that eliminated 22 positions and affected 20 more through reassignment, after the Select Board declined to bring a $2 million override to town meeting. Over a dozen speakers, most of them current students, pleaded for the reinstatement of high school orchestra director and tech theater instructor, slated to be moved to Jordan Jackson Elementary, and warned that removing both string specialists would end the program's middle-to-high school pipeline; a combined petition opposing the moves had collected nearly 900 signatures. Jennifer Fleishman, a parent and 16-year Robinson School reading specialist, told the board that cutting early literacy staff at Robinson from 4.5 to 2 positions would leave two specialists for roughly 670 students, adding that remediation costs four times more than early intervention. The committee voted 5-0 on all formal actions, including appointing Superintendent Michelle McKune to the BICO Board of Directors and exercising the fifth-year option on the Connelly bus contract; voters will weigh the school budget at annual town meeting on May 5.