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.