Lexington Budget Summit Flags Tight Finances and $645M High School Pressure

LEXINGTON -- January 30, 2025, Lexington's five municipal boards received a balanced $7.46 million new-revenue FY2026 budget at a January 30 Finance Summit, but officials warned the fiscal picture will worsen. Assistant Town Manager for Finance Carolyn Kosnoff reported that health insurance premium estimates were revised down to 11 percent, Minuteman Regional costs came in at $3.6 million, and $509,000 in shared-expense reductions helped close the gap, pushing the Capital Stabilization Fund toward $48 million and the Special Education Reserve Fund toward $3 million. Capital Expenditures Committee Chair Charles Lamb told the assembled boards that Select Board members who have "significant objections to Bloom" for the new high school must say so before the Brown Book vote on February 14, warning that a vote approving the $645 million placeholder "will be endorsing that project as it is currently scoped." Superintendent Dr. Julie Hackett confirmed the school department cut professional development by $200,000, reduced departmental expense lines 10 to 25 percent, and plans to eliminate roughly 12 full-time equivalents to reach a balanced school budget, calling the result "a hard one to put together" with pressure that "will get exacerbated in years to come."