Frontrunner City Schools Need Support, Says Superintendent
By Melanie Gilbert
LOWELL — At the same time that the city is trying to raise its global profile through the Frontrunner City Initiative, it continued to cut direct funding to Lowell Public Schools. District figures show cash contributions have declined by 23% since fiscal 2014. During the city/school fiscal 2026 discussions in May, Superintendent of Schools Liam Skinner said the cuts hurt student education.
“It is not widely understood what it takes to educate students with the kinds of needs as the student we have in Lowell,” Skinner told the council. “And to do that with grossly fewer and less-qualified staff than that in other competing districts.”
In light of the cuts, the School Committee focused its attention during its Wednesday night meeting on finding the money to provide a quality education for the children of Lowell. The body endorsed a more aggressive review of the maintenance of effort agreement, an accounting system that allows the city to offset cash contributions to the district’s budget with municipal services.
In a gateway city like Lowell, with a relatively low median income and local tax base, approximately 78% of the foundation funding each fiscal year is provided by the commonwealth. The remainder is required by law to be provided by the city, known as net school spending, through a combination of in-kind services, called maintenance of effort, and cash contributions. The district uses the city’s cash to fund positions.
“Fifty-eight million in maintenance of effort charges,” committee member Jackie Doherty said. “We need to do our due diligence and scrutinize what those charges are and where they’re coming from and whether they are appropriate. As we know, the [city’s] cash contribution has gone significantly down over the last couple of decades, while the maintenance of effort has gone up.”
The scrutiny comes at a time when Lowell is positioning itself to be an investment opportunity for global partners as a Frontrunner City, the first selected in the United States. Frontrunner status allows Lowell to harness a global pipeline of investment in the fields of finance, construction and design with the goal to create inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable communities.
On Saturday, various city councilors and members of City Manager Tom Golden’s administration are headed to Geneva, Switzerland for a four-day trip to attend the international launch of Lowell as a Frontrunner City at the United Nations European Headquarters.
Building out a Frontrunner City requires a frontrunner education system, Skinner said during a meeting with The Sun’s editorial board Wednesday afternoon, during which he laid out the district’s five-year strategic plan. In that area, Lowell Public Schools continues to be a work in progress, in part due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also from the city’s demographics and finances.
According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, Lowell is 56% renters. At $73,000, the median income of Lowell’s 115,000 residents is 24% lower than the state average. Almost 20% of Lowell’s population earns below $25,000. Those economic indicators impact families with school-age children.
Skinner said 10% of Lowell Public Schools’ approximately 15,000-member student body is homeless. Eighty-three percent of Lowell High students are considered “high needs.” The on-time graduation rate remains below the state average. Approximately 1 in 4 Lowell students is chronically absent, which the district’s strategic plan said has a significant effect on academic outcomes.
The city’s MOE includes chargebacks for services like snow plowing, trash pickup, water and sewer, rising fixed costs for pension, health insurance and charter schools, as well as capital improvements to the district’s 28 buildings.
Both the School Committee and the City Council are responsible for school buildings. The school district uses the buildings, but almost all are owned by the city. The district is responsible for custodial services, like cleaning, while the city is responsible for repairs. Those repairs can be charged off to maintenance of effort in budget calculations. Historically, using this funding mechanism, the city has exceeded the minimum state requirements.
The city’s MOE calculations are reported out to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by Sept. 30. The last MOE agreement between the city and the school district was signed in 2011.
In 2022, following yet another cut in cash contributions to the district’s budget in lieu of MOE charges, former Superintendent of Schools Joel Boyd said “there has been no documented increase in the quality or quantity of those services.”
Wednesday’s School Committee agenda also included a presentation from LZ Nunn, executive director of Project LEARN, a nonprofit organization that develops and coordinates innovative educational programs for students and young people in Lowell.
She presented the Lowell School Fund to the committee, a Project LEARN initiative that raises private funding to support high-impact programs in Lowell Public Schools.
“By mobilizing donations from individuals, alumni, foundations and corporate sponsors, the fund helps fill gaps in public funding,” Nunn said.
She said it was a “pivotal moment” in public education for students and that the fund would “help safeguard Lowell Public Schools against economic and political uncertainty by providing financial security that high-needs urban districts find themselves in.”
The fund launches this fall and hopes to secure $100,000 by December.
“In three to five years’ time, we hope to have $3-5 million in the fund,” Nunn said, to invest in priorities like literacy and early learning, college and career readiness, STEM and arts enrichment and teacher innovation grants.
Skinner voiced his support for the fund and called it a “great opportunity for our school system.”