Auburn Finance Committee Recommends $34M School Budget, Four Other Education Budgets

AUBURN — April 1, 2026 — Auburn Finance Committee recommends more than $66 million in education budgets for FY2027 Town Meeting. Meeting on April 1, the committee unanimously backed a $33,968,107 Auburn School Department budget — a 3.92 percent increase — presented by outgoing Superintendent Dr. Chamberlain in her final budget appearance before retirement, along with a $2,098,218 Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School assessment and a $135,000 Norfolk Agricultural School budget covering three students. The school budget eliminates six positions district-wide and includes two Title I positions entered at $1 each following federal notification of a roughly $150,000 grant cut due to Auburn's poverty rate falling below 5 percent. The committee also recommended a $231,233 Auburn Youth Commission budget, a roughly 3 percent increase, while pressing the commission and its service partner Auburn Youth and Family Services — which has exceeded its 650-hour annual contract by more than 500 hours in each of the past four years and runs annual deficits of $30,000 to $35,000 — to present a needs-based budget request in future years rather than simply accepting the town manager's figure.