Sisitsky Proposes $383.2M FY26 Budget, While School Officials Ponder Further Cuts

FRAMINGHAM - Budget season in Framingham is in full swing, as Mayor Charlie Sisitsky submitted his nearly $383.2 million budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year to the City Council on Tuesday, April 29. That same night, the Framingham School Committee continued to ponder further reductions to their budget pitch.

Sisitsky’s budget submission for the upcoming fiscal year is, specifically, $383,163,048. That represents an increase of about $24 million from Framingham’s municipal budget in FY25. In a press release, city officials said the budget proposal includes increases for staffing within both the local police and fire departments.

Most of Sisitsky’s budget proposal is funded by about $230.4 million through the 2.5% local tax levy increase. Other major sources include close to $108 million in state aid, $25.4 million in local receipts, and $10 million in free cash. The tax levy bump would result in a $195 taxpayer increase when considering the average value of a single-family home in Framingham—which is about $653,000—according to local officials.

A major chunk of the city’s annual budget will consist of funding for Framingham Public Schools (FPS), as education and municipal officials continue to work towards an agreed-upon number for the district’s FY26 budget.

Back in March, FPS leaders had proposed a $186.6 million school budget for the upcoming year. That figure would have constituted a 10.5% raise from the district’s $172.6 million budget in the 2025 fiscal year. Soon after that proposal, though, Sisitsky and his administration had proposed a $181.6 million budget.

With the submission of his full budget idea on Tuesday, Sisitsky offered about $183.1 million for FPS. That would amount to a $10.5 million increase—or roughly 6%—of the FY25 school budget, but it still results in a gap between the proposals from the administration and the school district.

In turn, members of the School Committee considered additional budget cuts during their virtual meeting on Tuesday. Further potential reductions to the budget were outlined in a memo from April 15 penned by School Superintendent Dr. Robert Tremblay as well as Executive Director of Finance and Operations for the district Lincoln Lynch.

“We’re not saying, ‘This is what we would like to do.’ We’re saying, ‘We’d like to close the gap, and this is our best effort to close the gap,’” Tremblay explained during this week’s School Committee meeting.

“No program elimination or program reduction is going to be satisfactory to anybody.”

FPS officials said they will be looking to reduce the impact on positions that deal directly with students, though they added that any cut would affect educational services in Framingham one way or another.

Some of the proposed budget reductions to meet the administration’s proposal mulled by the School Committee this week included about $120,000 for the newly proposed role of Capital Projects Manager—a role that Lynch said was not on the district’s books to begin with—along with roughly $788,000 through the reduction of two coaching positions in multiple educational disciplines, around 282,000 in costs associated with conferences and vendors for training, and $150,000 in expenses for new technological hardware.

As the body looks to clarify the local financial situation, District 4 School Committee member Adam Freudberg urged school leaders to continue to converse with Sisitsky and city councilors in order to find common ground in finding a budget that does not hinder local educational efforts.

“This budget is harmful right now where it stands, and I wouldn’t want us to rush tonight to make decisions when we don’t need to make decisions yet; the budget’s typically not done until June,” Freudberg continued on Tuesday.

The School Committee did vote to keep the line item in the memo that mentioned equity expenses, which totaled about $97,000, within their operational budget. Other expenses outlined in the memo totaling about $794,000 were part of the group’s proposed reductions. With those cuts, the School Committee’s proposed budget would total $184.8 million. That would be a roughly 7% increase from the FY25 budget, but it’s a figure that would still be $1.7 million away from Sisitsky’s $183.1 million pitch.

Sisitsky’s FY26 budget proposal has been referred to the City Council’s Finance Subcommittee for consideration. FPS leaders are slated to continue discussions with elected officials as this process continues.