By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Tensions ran incredibly high on Feb. 11 when School Committee member Jamie Hayman sparred with his colleagues and Superintendent Tom Geary over the fiscal year 2026 budget development process.
Geary gave an overview of where the School Department’s FY26 budget development process currently stands during a Jan. 28 meeting. He is currently seeking a $33.2 million spending plan, which represents a 7.8 percent increase over FY25’s $30,806,245 appropriation. He said during that meeting that the budget was “up in the air” due to the School Committee currently negotiating the next teachers’ contract with the Lynnfield Teachers Association (LTA).
After School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy made a motion to approve the Jan. 28 meeting’s minutes on Feb. 11, Hayman said he had “a couple of concerns” to express.
“In reading through this, the minutes of the Jan. 28 meeting state that it was Mr. Geary’s budget recommendation,” said Hayman. “This was also reflected in the agenda that was posted. However, I specifically asked if this was the final budget presentation and was told, ‘no this is an update and a recommendation thus far.’ Mr. Geary did not indicate a recommendation for an operating budget, but instead provided a summary and an update with two options. He did make the recommendation for the capital budget. I think we just need to clarify that.”
Hayman also “clarified some statements” his School Committee colleagues made “about the timing of this budget process.”
“The committee and the superintendent keep talking about how early we are in the budget process,” said Hayman. “I didn’t bring it up at the last meeting because I didn’t have the data with me. Following the meeting, I went back and checked and I have the dates of every superintendent budget recommendation, public budget hearing and Town Meeting date, dating back to 2017. The statement that we are early or earlier than most years is in fact not true.”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Hayman said “the budget presentation had always been completed before the end of January and once the first week of February.”
“Since 2021, it has been delayed to either the last week of February or, in two cases when Town Meeting was also delayed, the first week in March,” said Hayman. “Since we have not had a formal budget recommendation and discussion and we don’t have another meeting scheduled until March 4, any suggestions that we are early or ahead of previous years is just false. I just think we need to acknowledge where we actually are in both the meeting minutes and what is happening.”
Elworthy asked Hayman what he “wanted corrected in the actual minutes.”
“There was not a recommendation for an operating budget,” Hayman explained.
School Committee member Jim Dillon said Hayman should have provided the rest of the panel with the “feedback” before the meeting so that they “could have made those changes.”
“I didn’t get the minutes until this weekend and I didn’t have time to look through them,” said Hayman.
Geary said the “spirit” of what he and the Budget Subcommittee, which is comprised of Elworthy and School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Sheehan, were discussing on Jan. 28 was that school officials “have been talking with other boards and other groups earlier on.”
“Those have happened in February, March and Aprilish,” said Geary. “I think we started far earlier this year. To me, that is the spirit of what we were talking about.”
Hayman asked Geary when he will be giving the School Committee a formal budget recommendation.
“We just sat here in executive session prior to this for the past hour trying to go through some financials for the various unions we are negotiating with,” said Geary. “I think you know that we are not in a spot that we would typically be in so it feels a little disingenuous to ask this at the meeting while knowing where we just were.”
Hayman disagreed.
“No, it actually doesn’t seem disingenuous,” said Hayman. “Our job is to get a budget passed and have a recommendation. There is timing involved with that, so when can we expect to have a budget recommendation that we can react to, and the public can look at and say this is what we are proposing?”
Geary said the School Committee will be holding a public hearing on the FY26 operating and capital budgets on Tuesday, March 18.
“We are working with the town still,” said Geary.
Elworthy asked Hayman if he “had a suggestion” for how he “would like to see it done differently.”
“I would like to see a budget recommendation at the next meeting that we can then react to and the public can react to at the public budget hearing,” said Hayman in response.
Elworthy inquired what information Hayman was looking for in the budget process.
“There is so much information that has not been shared,” said Hayman. “We haven’t talked about class sizes.”
Geary interrupted Hayman by saying he gave him and the School Committee class size information during a budget workshop in December.
“So right now Tom, based on what you shared with me, you are proposing 15-person classes?” Hayman fired back in response.
“No, I am not proposing 15-person classes,” retorted Geary.
Hayman asked Geary again if he would be giving a recommended operating budget presentation during the School Committee’s next meeting on March 4.
“We haven’t set the agenda for the next meeting yet,” said Geary.
Hayman noted that the March 4 meeting will be “the last meeting before the public budget hearing.”
Sheehan asked if the School Department’s FY26 operating and capital budgets have to be available for the public “two weeks prior” to the public hearing on March 18.
Hayman said Sheehan was correct.
Elworthy said school officials “are aware there are a lot more moving pieces this year” due to contract negotiations with the LTA being underway.
“I get it, but we also owe it to the town to say here is what we are prioritizing,” said Hayman. “If it’s a level budget, then it’s a level budget. But we owe it to say this is what we are prioritizing, here is where we were able to cut, here is what we added where we wanted to add and, if we had more money, these are the wants.”
Geary said the School Committee discussed budget priorities during a workshop this past December.
“Our budget workshop is a public meeting,” said Geary. “There were members of the public there. It wasn’t on TV.”
“Come on,” said Hayman in response.
An angry Geary asked Hayman why he “didn’t give me a call sometime in the last two weeks without doing this publicly.”
“That is the come on statement,” said Geary.
“You want to know why I didn’t call you? Because I don’t trust you Tom,” Hayman fired back in response. “It’s plain and simple.”
School Committee member Kate DePrizio said Hayman should have raised his concerns before the meeting.
“I think it is fair about the word recommendation,” said DePrizio. “I am hearing clearly where you stand, and I think we are all receptive to changing it. It would have been helpful to know beforehand so we didn’t have to do it like this, but I understand there is a trust issue there.”
DePrizio said she took “a big issue” with Hayman’s comment that the budget process “hasn’t started sooner.” She said Geary and the Budget Subcommittee have been meeting with Town Administrator Rob Dolan and representatives from the Select Board and Finance Committee since last fall.
“I think it is a completely fair statement to say they have been over collaborative with the other boards in town,” said DePrizio.
Elworthy said all five School Committee members “are on the same team here.”
“There is no reason for this to be a combative situation,” said Elworthy. “We all want to do our best to grow in the next year or two.”
While Elworthy said she has primarily reviewed school budgets “on the outside” aside from her short tenure on the Finance Committee, she said she hasn’t “seen as an outsider this kind of discussion and this honesty” with the School Department’s FY26 operating budget currently being a 7.8 percent increase.
“I am going back to (former) Superintendent Vogel’s presentations,” said Elworthy. “Those are the ones I looked at. This isn’t a comparison game. We are just trying to explain the information you are getting now. This happened last year too when more information was given earlier, and it became a messier process. I think people need to understand that if its different, it can be a little bit messy.”
While Hayman said he is “fine with different,” he stressed that Geary needs to make a formal budget recommendation to the School Committee and explain it to the community.
“We made some really hard decisions last year and it definitely impacted our kids,” said Hayman.
Dillon asked Geary if the currently proposed FY26 operating budget has any cuts.
Geary said no.
Dillon said the School Committee is still negotiating with the LTA.
“One of the big variables is the teacher contract,” said Dillon. “We haven’t settled. We are negotiating. It’s a little bit of a moving target.”
Hayman didn’t buy Dillon’s argument.
“Towns have been building budgets while negotiations have been going on every year,” said Hayman. “It’s not unreasonable.”
Hayman also noted that the teachers’ contract might not be finalized before the public budget hearing on March 18.
In response to a question from Dillon, Elworthy said the 15-person classes Hayman referenced twice referred to the current kindergarten registrations for the 2025-2026 academic year. She said kindergarten enrollment is “going to grow” and if it doesn’t, she said class sizes would be adjusted.
Dillon said, “The best class sizes in the Lynnfield Public Schools by far are at Lynnfield High School.”
“It’s not even close,” said Dillon. “The elementary schools would die for the class sizes at LHS.”
Dillon reiterated that the finalized teachers’ contract was up to the School Committee and not Geary to approve.
“If you want a final number, this committee has to decide to give the superintendent a number for this teachers’ contract,” said Dillon.
Elworthy asked Hayman to reach out to Superintendent Executive Assistant Annmarie McCormick to outline what changes he wanted to make to the Jan. 28 meeting minutes.
Hayman said he would email McCormick.
Before the School Committee moved on to the rest of the Feb. 11 agenda, Dillon told Geary: “You have my complete trust.”