School Committee Pushes Braintree Budget Vote

BRAINTREE, MA — Voting on the contentious Braintree school budget was tabled until a later meeting by the School Committee on Monday after more than four hours of public comment from students, teachers and community members.

The decision split the committee, who voted 4 to 3 in favor of tabling the vote to the April 22 School Committee meeting. This decision effectively sets a hard deadline for the committee to decide what to do, as Mayor Erin Joyce must present a budget to the Town Council on April 30.

When the roll call vote reached Joyce, who herself has been at the center of some of the confrontation, she took an extended pause before explaining her vote.

"I really think that the committee should do the due diligence to put forward the strongest budget to the mayor, so if members feel the need to further evaluate and do the hard work of evaluating potential cuts and putting forward what they feel like is the strongest budget I believe they should be offered that time," Joyce said, voting in favor of tabling the vote.

For the full meeting, click here.

This, of course, comes after weeks of concern that a budget proposal that fell short of the district's current operating needs would result in position and course elimination, larger class sizes and even an elementary school closure.

The latter of those possibilities led to the aforementioned confrontation between Joyce and Superintendent James Lee, who said that Highlands Elementary School would need to close with redistricting for the remaining schools if the current budget proposal of was passed.

Joyce said the comments were Joyce's owned "poorly conceived and timed opinion", and noted that the town would work to find a way to keep the school open.

Read more: Braintree Schools Budget Takes Center Stage At Public Hearing