Lee School Committee Approves Third Kindergarten Class, Accepts Bleacher Donation

LENOX — June 9, 2026 — Lee School Committee approves third kindergarten classroom and bleacher donation at year-end meeting. The committee, meeting Tuesday at Lee Middle and High School, voted unanimously to use school choice funds — capped at $100,000 — to hire a teacher and paraprofessional for a third kindergarten section after enrollment hit 41 students for 2026-27, a figure Superintendent Richard Schard called larger than it has been in recent years and one that leaves no margin for the four to seven additional in-town registrations that have arrived after school ends each of the past three years. The committee also approved four new school choice kindergarten seats, noting the district had already filled the 10 seats approved in April and carries a school choice fund surplus of several hundred thousand dollars. In other action, the board unanimously authorized prepayment of $80,347.84 in FY26 funds toward FY27 private special education tuition under MGL Chapter 71, Section 71D, funded by an extra $71,980 in circuit breaker reimbursement returned to the district at the close of FY25. The committee also accepted an approximately $20,000 aluminum bleacher donation for the softball field from the Lee Youth Commission and approved accounts payable and payroll warrants totaling $2,400,923.72.