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Lexington to cut a slew of teachers as town prepares to build $660M high school
Lexington also handed out 160 pink slips to its educators amid a “significant” budget gap.
With looming budget troubles and a $660 million new high school on the horizon, Lexington Public Schools is cutting dozens of positions and warning its early-career educators of possible mass layoffs.
The district announced last week it is eliminating the equivalent of about 65 full-time positions next fiscal year, in addition to issuing non-renewal letters to all 160 staffers who do not yet have professional teacher status — a form of tenure with some measure of job security.
“Some news is simply hard to deliver,” Superintendent Julie Hackett acknowledged in the announcement. “Behind every staffing decision is a real person, and we have not arrived at these choices lightly, knowing the impact they carry.”
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Like many other school districts across the state, Lexington is facing a “significant” structural budget gap heading into fiscal year 2027, Hackett explained.
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“The primary drivers are declining student enrollment and rising fixed costs — salaries, benefits, health insurance, transportation, and special education,” she added. “This is the third consecutive year of reductions beyond the typical level, and we hope it is the last — though I must be candid: these pressures are expected to continue, and we may need to revisit staffing levels again next year.”
Hackett also warned that the cuts to 65 full-time positions will likely impact more employees than the number suggests, given part-time staffers are included in the count. The cuts were first reported by The Lexington Observer.
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“We have not seen cuts like this since the early 90s,” said Robin Strizhak, president of the Lexington Education Association. “We have had cuts in past years, but they were nowhere near this level.”
The staffing cuts came in waves, she noted, with Lexington putting dozens of positions on the chopping block in January as it worked to close the budget gap.
“The others, though, were a shock,” Strizhak told Boston.com. “We expected cuts, but not ones that went this deeply. Every program is impacted in some way — even the building administrators.”
Many districts routinely pink-slip all teachers who don’t have professional status, though Strizhak said Lexington historically hasn’t done so.
Hackett argued the sweeping non-renewal notices avoid more uncertainty in the long run and help the district move through the reorganization process “more fairly and efficiently.” The superintendent also said school officials will “do everything in our power” to shuffle Lexington educators without professional status into open positions.
While Strizhak acknowledged most educators who received pink slips will get their jobs back, she warned the staffing cuts mean elementary school music, art, physical education, and health classes could be reduced by as much as 25%.
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“Some say we are overstaffed; I disagree,” Strizhak said. “Lexington Public Schools are excellent for many reasons, one of which is smaller class sizes aimed at individualized instruction.”
She said school administrators are also being “reshuffled, reorganized and given further obligations which will stretch them too thin,” and the overflow testing team and digital learning coaches have been cut entirely.
“We are saying that we are in crisis right now — one that the town might not see because educators are making themselves sick to maintain the status quo,” Strizhak added. “This is unsustainable.”
The staffing cuts come just months after Lexington voters agreed to raise taxes to pay for a new high school that will replace a campus dating back to the 1950s at an estimated cost of $660 million.
Given the recent debt exclusion vote, town officials have decided there’s no appetite for another override to help Lexington Public Schools close its budget gap. Separately, some residents are also wary after a wave of new housing raised questions about how Lexington’s school system might handle an influx of new students.
“These reductions are … an alternative to a Proposition 2½ override — something nobody in this community wants,” School Committee Chair Eileen Jay wrote in an open letter last week. “An override would place a direct tax burden on every household in Lexington. We are doing everything we can to avoid that outcome.”
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The School Committee will hold a virtual meeting Monday evening to review the budget reductions and allow community members to weigh in before Lexington’s Annual Town Meeting convenes and takes up the town’s 2027 financial plans.
“This is hard. We know it. Every reduction represents a real impact to real people — our dedicated educators, trusted programs, and important support services our students depend on each day,” Jay acknowledged. “None of these decisions have been made lightly, and none of them reflect anything other than the difficult reality of operating a school system with financial constraints largely beyond our control.”
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