District overview
Funding structure, how it compares to peers, and where major projects stand.
Methuen is funded mainly through the state's Chapter 70 formula. The state calculates a foundation budget for the district, decides how much the city can afford to contribute based on property values and resident income, and covers the rest with state aid. For FY27, state aid covered more than half the foundation budget. That formula did not stretch far enough this year: falling federal and state grant funding, rising special education and transportation costs, and a required local contribution the city could not raise further combined into a budget shortfall that the School Committee could not resolve at its first scheduled adoption vote.
The FY27 Chapter 70 foundation budget is $124,723,584. The state covers $72,676,678 of it; the city's required minimum contribution is $52,046,906.
On May 7, 2026, the Committee's motions to adopt a $106,590,457 net-school-spending budget and a $142,143,368 total operating budget (with city chargebacks) both failed 3-4. Only smaller pieces -- transportation and the chargeback estimate -- passed.
District enrollment fell from 6,450 students in 2020-21 to 6,255 in 2025-26. Over the same period the share of high-needs students rose from 56.3% to 67.1%, English learners from 10.7% to 18.4%, and low-income students from 41.9% to 53%.
Superintendent Brandi Kwong resigned, effective around December 2025; the Committee accepted her resignation 6-1 on October 27, 2025. Lisa Golobski Twomey has served as acting, then interim, superintendent since, while a hired search firm looks for a permanent successor.
None of this points to obvious mismanagement. The failed May 7 budget votes reflect a genuinely hard year of falling state and federal aid rather than an unwilling committee -- members who voted no said they wanted a different number, not no budget at all -- and the interim superintendent's transition plan and contract both had unanimous committee support.
State aid toward the $124,723,584 Chapter 70 foundation budget.
The state's calculation of what the city must contribute toward the Chapter 70 foundation budget.
Down from 6,450 in 2020-21, per the district's own enrollment-shift table.
The net-school-spending and total-operating-budget motions each failed 3-4; only the transportation and chargeback pieces passed.
Context only: $124,723,584 foundation budget divided by the state's 6,553 foundation-enrollment count. Not a per-pupil figure the district reported directly.
The Committee spent five workshops (April 16 to May 5, 2026) cutting a proposed budget from roughly $123 million toward the Mayor's target before the formal May 7 adoption hearing, where its two main motions still failed. Reconsideration was scheduled for May 11, 2026, but the collected archive does not include approved minutes confirming the outcome, and both August 2026 agendas still list an open FY27 budget update.
Chapter 70 state aid, required city contribution, and city chargebacks
Superintendent Brandi Kwong resigned, accepted 6-1 on October 27, 2025. Lisa Golobski Twomey was appointed Acting Superintendent on February 9, 2026 (retroactive to December 15, 2025) and Interim Superintendent for 2026-2027 on April 13, 2026, the same night the Committee awarded the permanent search to Zeal Education. No permanent hire appears in the documents collected through August 2026.
District operating budget (search-firm contract and interim-superintendent salary)
Methuen
Methuen elects its Mayor, City Council, and six School Committee members at the municipal election held in odd-numbered years. The next municipal election, filling the Mayor's office, Council, and School Committee, is in November 2027.
Official source · verified Aug 19, 2026
This overview uses the district's own Meetings, Documents and Recordings archive for the trailing year (August 2025 through August 2026): every posted agenda, packet, and minutes file linked from that page, downloaded from Google Drive. Alerts and figures are written from that reviewed archive plus the district's own FY27 budget presentation.
We read every agenda, packet, and set of minutes, and write up the decisions that affect families — each one linked to the document it came from.
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