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Burlington's Ways and Means Committee met on April 29 to review a number of financial items ahead of the town's May 11 Town Meeting. While items like exercise equipment for the Council on Aging and funding to develop plans for a new Simonds Park got an easy recommendation, the bulk of the discussion centered on Shawsheen Tech, the regional vocational school serving Burlington and four nearby communities.

Shawsheen has been wrestling with financial problems for over a year, after the state's Excesses and Deficiencies (similar to a town's Free Cash) certification revealed a $214,000 overspend in the 2024 fiscal year with deficits in a number of accounts, said Ways & Means member Ed Parsons. "A report by TMS Solutions in December of 2025 reported deficiencies in budget management reporting [and the] use of revolving accounts, among other accounting and management insufficiencies," Parsons said in a statement at the April 29 meeting. "The latest DLS certification of excesses and deficiencies made $986,000 of adjustments which require reconciliation."

When the school, represented by Superintendent-Director Tony McIntosh, interim business manager Paul Livingston, and School Committee members Kent Moffatt and Stacey Huberty, first appeared in front of the Ways & Means Committee on April 8, members expressed serious concerns about the accuracy of the budget, the lack of adopted policies and procedures to prevent similar problems in the future, and lack of a business manager to properly manage the school's finances.

Ways & Means Committee member John Iler was an outspoken skeptic, saying, "It feels like you were shooting from the hip last year. If you don't have that level of detail, how are you accurately creating a budget? It may have accidentally been close, but apparently accidentally, it was missing some things too. So, we want to have confidence that the process is in place" to construct an accurate budget with complete information.

At that time, the vote on the budget was postponed and Parsons took on the task of working with McIntosh and Livingston to gather the documentation necessary to give Burlington's finance committee the confidence it needs to recommend the budget to Town Meeting.

At the April 29 meeting, members including Parsons, Iler, and chair Doug Davison said while they'd expected the work over the intervening time to illuminate and clarify this year's budget, they now have more concerns than they did three weeks ago.

Parsons opened the Shawsheen portion of the meeting by summarizing the work that's been done in the last few weeks and the current status of the Shawsheen budget.

Parsons said he also presented the information he gathered to the finance committees of Shawsheen's other sending towns (Billerica, Bedford, Wilmington, and Tewksbury) in an attempt to collaborate on next steps.

It has been difficult to coordinate five separate committees, said Parsons, but he urged action and collaboration in a prepared statement, which read in part, "I would recommend that the five town finance committees establish a mechanism to enable a more appropriate level of oversight for financial control and management at Shawsheen, which may include attendance by finance committee representatives at school committee meetings. Shawsheen administration should provide monthly budget reports and funds balances to the finance committee representatives as well as the school committee. As we get on track as soon as possible, Shawsheen should hire a qualified business manager. And then finally Shawsheen's administration should complete and report out a reconciliation of all funds and accounts so that we know our status."

Parsons and his colleagues emphasized their support for Shawsheen's educational mission while demanding improved financial accountability.

"I have a moderate degree of confidence that you have assembled with your department heads a list of the monies you need and requested the appropriate amount from the communities," said Parsons. "I think we can move ahead and this will be operating. But I have a lot of concerns about the integrity of your financial systems and your resources to tend to them in the future." He later added, "We don't know what might have happened in FY25 and we are most of the way through FY26."

McIntosh and Moffatt acknowledged the financial challenges while defending the need for operational funding. "We did implement monthly budget reporting for this current year," McIntosh noted, describing steps taken to address oversight concerns. McIntosh also said the school will soon be interviewing for the business manager position, though Moffatt said there was only one bid received for the role.

During the course of the discussion, Iler advocated for a budget adjustment of $27,500 ā€“ a number he said was equivalent to the Superintendent-Director compensation increase for FY27 ā€“ a motion that was ultimately voted down 4-8. Iler argued the "haircut" would send a message that the committee takes their concerns seriously, while Roger Riggs said the decrease would add unnecessary drama.

In the end, the committee cast a 4-8 advisory vote against recommending the town's $3,906,349 portion of the $44.3-million budget to Town Meeting, with Parsons committing to present at Town Meeting why the finance committee voted against it but Town Meeting should vote in favor.

The budget for Shawsheen must be approved by Town Meetings of 2/3 (four out of five) of the sending communities in order to be enacted; a rejection would require Shawsheen's school committee to revise and resubmit a budget, which would then return to each town's appropriating authority for a new vote.

The conversation then turned to Shawsheen's proposed feasibility study, which is a condition of their engagement with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the state agency that provides reimbursement to towns for certain school building projects. After being approved by the Ways & Means Committee on April 8, Iler moved that the recommendation be reconsidered.

Iler, the sole committee member who voted against supporting the town's share of the $1.5 million study the first time around, argued that the efforts to get its financial systems on track should be the school's sole focus at this point in time, and the feasibility process would interfere too much. In addition, the school project is likely to cost around $350 million, and committee members expressed a lack of confidence that the school could effectively manage a project of that scope before financial safeguards and procedures were firmly in place to support its operating budget.

However, others including Frank Monaco worried about losing the MSBA opportunity. "If we get out of line, it's probably five or 10 years before we're back to this point again," McIntosh responded, noting that MSBA receives 75-90 project requests annually but funds only 15-20.

The committee was split on the subject, voting 6-6-0 on the $165,737 ā€“ money that the school originally hoped to pull from Excesses and Deficiencies but now won't be able to. The tie vote means the committee will present a split recommendation to town meeting.

Despite the dominance of Shawsheen in the conversation, the committee approved numerous other municipal requests:

Recreation Department Projects:

  • Simonds Park renovation and improvement design: $200,000 (approved 13-0)
  • Athletic field improvements: $200,000 (approved 13-0)
  • Fencing, walkway and tree replacement: $50,000 (approved 13-0)
  • Maintenance equipment replacement: $60,000 (approved 13-0)
  • Ceramics room renovation: $50,000 (approved 13-0)
  • Marshall Simonds Trust acceptance: $100,000 (up from previous years, approved 13-0)

Conservation Department:

  • Land management and acquisition program: $20,000 (approved 12-1)
  • Hazard mitigation program: $25,000 (approved 12-1)

Council on Aging:

  • Fitness equipment replacement: $30,000 (approved 13-0)

Other Items:

The committee also approved a reserve fund transfer to replace fire equipment that was damaged while fighting a recent fire in the truck yard at Wall Street: $80,000 (approved 12-0)

The committee postponed the Historical Commission's request for money for its long-planned storage shed, along with the Fourth of July celebration funding request, pending additional documentation.

The Ways & Means Committee will meet once more on May 6 to review the final financial items prior to Town Meeting, which begins on May 11.

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