📬 School Committee Recap: June 16, 2025

A quick meeting to close the year, new voices on the School Building Committee, and summer vibes incoming ☀️🐾

The School Committee met briefly on June 16, 2025, just ahead of Milton’s June Town Meeting. It was our final meeting of the 2024–2025 school year. We’re now headed into summer recess, with our next official business likely coming at a School Committee retreat in August once the new school year and central office leadership are fully underway.

Here’s what you need to know 👇

🗳️ Quick Votes

• Contract approval: We unanimously approved a one-year agreement with AFSCME (the union that represents many of our support staff), covering July 2025 through June 2026.

• Vendor warrant: Approved.

• Meeting minutes: We approved the minutes from our June 4 meeting.

💰 Budget Update

No new changes since our last discussion: we’re on track to close FY25 with an approximately $1 million deficit. So far, $700K has been allocated to close that gap. The Finance Subcommittee and district leadership will be meeting with the Warrant Committee soon to discuss how to address the remaining $300K.

🏗️ Facilities + School Building Update

• Cunningham construction: Work is underway on the third-floor expansion at Cunningham Elementary. The space is being cleared and construction should be complete by the end of the summer. This is such a great project!

• School Building Committee (SBC) appointments:
  We unanimously voted to appoint three school leaders as non-voting members of the SBC for Cunningham:

  • Superintendent John Phelan

  • Assistant Superintendent Catherine Blake

  • Cunningham Principal Dr. Jon Redden

This aligns with changes voted at Town Meeting back in February, which expanded the SBC to include key non-voting positions such as the superintendent, a principal, the town administrator, and others to ensure appropriate representation and technical expertise.

🎓 What’s Next

No more regular School Committee meetings are expected until August 20th. That said, we’ll be holding a planning retreat in August to gear up for a strong 2025–2026 school year.

🏅 Extra Credit

• The last few weeks of school are always a whirlwind of field days, moving-up ceremonies, awards nights, and celebrations — and this year was no exception.

• I want to extend a huge congratulations to all of our students, teachers, staff, and families on another incredible year.

• Special shoutout to all our graduating and rising students — whether you’re heading off to college, middle school, high school, or kindergarten, we’re cheering you on.

• Wishing everyone a safe, restful, and joy-filled summer break.

• PSA: the Cunningham pool is NOW OPEN! 🏊‍♂️☀️

• And finally, a little family moment: both of my daughters wrapped up the school year this week. According to their end-of-year signs, they both want to be teachers when they grow up — and they both listed our new dog Raya as their favorite part of the school year 🐶💛.

Enjoy the summer, Milton!
—Nathan