CPS Expects $12 Million Budget Increase in Fiscal Year 2026, Driven by Staff Compensation

Cambridge Public Schools is set to increase its staff salaries and benefits expenditure by $10 million, according to a presentation on the 2026 fiscal year budget at a Jan. 7 School Committee meeting.

In total, CPS officials projected a $12 million increase in the system’s budget in fiscal year 2026 — about a 4.5 percent hike from its $268 million fiscal year 2025 budget. Spending on transportation, facilities and energy, and technology is also expected to rise.

At Tuesday’s meeting, interim Superintendent David Murphy highlighted that 84 percent of the proposed 2026 general fund budget is allocated to “Salaries and Benefits” for CPS staff.

“Every school district’s budget is primarily made up of personnel,” Murphy said. “There is no way to run a school system without people — we are a people-oriented field focused on the development of people, and that’s essentially where and how we spend our money.”

In a December meeting, the School Committee voted unanimously to close the Kennedy-Longfellow elementary school — but Murphy assured attendees that a “vast majority” of staff would remain in the district. He did not provide updates on Wednesday on K-Lo staff jobs but said families would soon receive information about the process of assigning their children to other CPS schools next year.

Ivy Washington, CPS Chief Financial Officer, said the budget invests in staff using a tiered system based on school enrollment and student needs. She added that Cambridge “really stands out” in its use of this multi-pronged approach to budgeting.

“Not every district has the number of positions that we have in each school, and not every district is allocating the number of staff that we do in our special education classrooms, in our sub-separate programs, in our sheltered English immersion programs — all of those,” Washington said.

Murphy said that CPS leaders “take great pride in” the staffing investment strategy, but added that it comes with a “heightened responsibility.”

“Because if we are going to invest at that level, we should be producing results that also far outpace other communities,” he said.

CPS leadership projected a $12 million increase in revenue from property taxes, which account for 91% of the general fund revenue.

The general fund does not include funding from capital funds, grants, and revolving funds, which are allocated for building projects and reimbursements for school meals respectively.

They also projected a slight increase in student enrollment for the 2025-26 school year, but projections for the next five years show a “relatively stable but declining enrollment.” Enrollment in 2026, however, is still projected to be lower than in the 2019-20 school year — which the presentation partially attributed to a decline in Cambridge’s birth rate.

Enrollment plunged dramatically in the 2020-21 school year and has seen a steep but slowing post-pandemic recovery.

On Wednesday, the Committee also unanimously voted to pass over to its next meeting a motion for a preliminary report investigating expanding the Tobin Montessori School’s program by three years.

The finalized budget for FY 2026 will be presented to the School Committee on March 12 and voted for approval on April 1.

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com.

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