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The Cambridge School Committee voted 5-2 to adopt the $280 million dollar FY26 budget within three minutes of entering discussion at a Tuesday meeting — and after nearly four months of planning.

The budget increased $12 million from the previous year, with 84 percent of the money being allocated to staff salaries and benefits. At a March 18 public hearing on the budget, several parents and staff urged the district to increase staffing of paraprofessionals, who assist teachers and provide individualized support to students.

Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy did not agree to expand paraprofessional staffing beyond the current budget limitations, but confirmed at a March 26 budget workshop that all paraprofessional staff from the recently-closed Kennedy-Longfellow elementary school would remain in the district.

At Tuesday’s meeting, paraprofessional staffing remained an area of contention. Committee members Richard Harding Jr. and Elizabeth C.P. Hudson — who both voted against the passing of the budget — presented a joint motion to add two paraprofessional positions and reemphasize the importance of teacher evaluations.

But the budget was passed before the motion was addressed by the school committee.

After the vote, Harding raised concerns that there was not enough discussion prior to the vote of approval.

“I don’t think we’ve ever passed the budget where we had no discussion,” he said. “We passed a more than a quarter billion dollar budget tonight, and we didn’t say a word about it.”

Hudson echoed Hardings’ concerns over the lack of discussion and response to public comments calling for additional staff support.

“I don’t think we know how we’re utilizing all of the assets that we have,” Hudson said. “And until we take that seriously, I’m going to vote no on every single budget.”

Hudson added that the district’s failure to meet teachers’ requests for two additional paraprofessionals indicates a broader failure of CPS leadership to meet the needs of their staff.

“If we have elementary school educators who are saying ‘I need help,’ I am absolutely willing to say that I went about that in the wrong way,” she said. “My disagreements with the budget are much bigger than two positions.”

But Hudson added that increased spending must be accompanied by increased teacher evaluations.

“We have a duty to both listen to them — but then we also have a duty to the city to make sure that we are again, keeping an eye on the overall numbers, and making sure that we’re spending every one of those dollars as efficiently as we could,” she said.

Murphy said the district’s “flexibility is not unlimited” when it comes to hiring Full Time Equivalents — a staffing classification that includes paraprofessionals — but indicated that hiring two additional paraprofessionals could be feasible.

“I don’t want to make it seem as though it’s negligible, but I also want to just be very transparent that I do not believe there would be a need for us to reduce additional FTEs as a result of it. I think it’s within that area that the magnitude is — we would find a way, if you vote for it” he added.

But Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons was less optimistic, raising doubts that the district’s budget could stretch to accommodate the two extra roles.

“We are running into really rocky times. We know we’re going to lose federal fundings,” Simmons said. “When we can say, on the one hand, we might have some wiggle room — I’m saying, let’s not play with it, because that wiggle room may not be there to wiggle.”

In response to committee members’ concerns that the motion combined teacher evaluations and increased staffing, Simmons moved the item to be addressed at the next meeting. The budget’s dollar amount would not change if the motion is approved.

The City Council is tentatively set to review the FY26 school district budget on May 13 now that the School Committee has approved the budget.

— Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

— Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.