School Committee Holds Budget Hearing as Staff Rally Against Specialist and MLL Cuts — February 26 Meeting

Arlington teachers, librarians, and community members packed the School Committee's FY27 budget hearing to oppose proposed reductions to elementary art, music, and PE specialists and multilingual learner (MLL) teacher positions. Superintendent Dr. Holman presented revised budget scenarios for both override-pass and override-fail outcomes, detailing how specialist scheduling would shift to a biweekly rotation and reduce total specials classes from 216 to 198 per student per year. The committee scheduled an in-person budget workshop for March 4 to deliberate alternatives before a planned vote on March 12.