On March 26, Somerville Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Rubén Carmona asked the district to prepare for a funding reduction of up to $1 million to account for a projected $5.3 million city budget deficit. The reduced city budget — attributed to a slowing economy and federal funding cuts — will affect multiple city departments, including the school district. According to the Somerville Educators Union, these reductions would put the school budget “well below level-service.”
SEU President Dayshawn Simmons told the Daily that the district was asked to prepare for four potential budget scenarios, ranging from $250,000 to $1 million in cuts.
At the April 6 School Committee meeting, educators, parents and residents wore red shirts in support of fully funding Somerville Public Schools, and several community members delivered public comments.
“Why is it that education is always one of the first [items] on the chopping block when there’s a deficit?” Kyle Serena, a Somerville resident who spoke at the meeting, asked. “Our schools should have increased funding. We need to stop asking our teachers to do more with less. Our schools need more para[professional]s, more specialists and more support.”
In another public comment, East Somerville Community School parent and teacher Cesar Urrunaga advocated for prioritizing student-facing positions in next year’s budget. He explained that students with Individualized Education Programs currently receive support in math and English language arts but not in subjects like science and social studies.
“My original ask … was going to be for getting more help getting paraprofessionals to fill the gap in student support,” Urrunaga said. “But I understand that we are living under some particular constraints in this budget year. … There is a lot more that we need to do.”
Simmons expressed to the Daily that cuts of this scale are unusual for Somerville. “We have not needed to talk about cuts of this magnitude in quite some time. But we are not immune to what is happening all around us,” he said.
A primary concern for Simmons, as well as for other residents, is the potential impact on student-facing positions.
“The district has been very forthcoming and very honest … that their goal is to not eliminate student facing positions,” he said. “That means something to know that this is not something they want to put on the table.”
Still, Simmons said the cuts may affect student services, including limiting planned expansions of programs such as Becoming a Man and Working on Womanhood. He also pointed to potential impacts on other departments, including technology and athletics.
“Those are the types of cuts that we would be looking at. It wouldn’t hopefully be in the classroom. But any cut is painful,” he said.
Preliminary budget proposals for the next school year show reductions across several departments, including multilingual learning, school health services, equity, facilities, professional development and the superintendent’s office.
To address this issue, Simmons, along with several community members at the meeting, called on the city to use its reserve funds. As of October 2025, Somerville has $23.8 million in certified “Free Cash” and a $15 million Stabilization Fund set aside for emergencies in the previous fiscal year.
Urrunaga also called on city officials to use these ‘rainy day’ funds.
“I want to implore you to look at creative ways to make use of these funds to ensure that our students are receiving the services that they deserve,” he said. “These [are] rainy day funds. … We can look outside, it’s pouring, and we need to make sure that these students are getting all the services that they deserve.”
“Somerville has the money, and [the budget] doesn’t need to be cut. It is high time that we properly fund our schools and support our educators,” Serena agreed.
However, Jim Kaplan, a former SPS teacher and SEU veteran, warned that relying on city reserves is not a sustainable long-term solution.
“You all are going to be caught in a nutcracker between demands. … Going forward, they will burn through the reserve funds, not simply of Somerville, but of the state,” he said.
Kaplan instead urged the School Committee and City Council to push for formal resolutions opposing state budget cuts. He pointed to two upcoming referendum questions that could reduce tax revenue and argued that current policies disproportionately benefit wealthy residents. He also advocated for reversing past tax breaks and pursuing measures such as a wealth tax to prevent additional cuts to public services.
The School Committee is expected to vote on next year’s budget at its May 6 budget hearing, when the district will learn its final allocation from Mayor Jake Wilson. The City Council will then take a final vote on the next fiscal year budget at the end of June.
Until then, Simmons said the union will continue advocating for zero cuts while preparing for multiple possible outcomes.
“The mayor hasn’t said definitively yet how this is going to land,” he said. “If it lands in a way that cuts our staffing to students, we’re going to be out there like we always are, on the front line … defending the investment in public education.”
