Abbott Elementary – District Budget Meeting

By starrymag | February 19, 2025

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

We open with teachers needing things from Ava (Janelle James). The reason beyond her being the principal is that it’s time for the annual district budget meeting where schools request funding. She’s not taking it very seriously because blackmailing the golf course gave the school a lot of their necessities. Ava says that they can now ask for the finer things in life, like hot water.

 

Later in the teacher’s lounge a group of teachers are making suggestions about what to ask for. Gregory (Tyler James Williams) would like one late bus, twice a week for his goofballs and the step team. Jacob (Chris Perfetti) pipes in that the kids need two-ply toilet paper. Janine (Quinta Brunson) would like to take the kids to the aquarium for a field trip. Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) points out that all of the recommendations are a waste of time because the district says no to everything.

 

However, Janine points out that every so often the district says yes and points to a lucky school that got double-sided erasers. Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) notes that it’s a crapshoot, meaning you have no way of knowing what the district will say yes to. Yet, this year Ava has an amazing presentation so she’s feeling confident that they’ll say yes to everything they’re asking for. Plus, she did the Edtalk for them, so she reasons that she and Abbott should be in the district’s good graces. Not only that but she feels that she can now speak the district’s language.

In addition to the big budget meeting, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. When Barbara asks Gregory and Janine if they have any plans, at first, they make a game of pretending not to know it’s almost Valentine’s Day – much to Barbara’s annoyance. The truth is that they’re both very aware that it’s going to be their first Valentine’s Day as a couple. Usually, they go all-in for holidays, but thanks to the district scheduling the meeting on Valentine’s Day they planned to have a quiet night in.

 

On the second floor, Jacob is teaching a class on the Industrial Revolution and is thrilled when RJ (Logan Carter) voluntarily answers two questions and seems happy. Remembering how RJ was checked out before, Jacob has to fight back happy tears. Then, he has to answer two very perturbed tweens. Andrew (Abraham Jayson) and another student (Etta Hughes) say that it’s nice that Jacob found RJ a club, so they want a club, too. Jacob asks about their interests, but they think it’s his job to know what they like. On a slightly more serious note, they say that RJ isn’t the only one with family problems. Jacob says that is alarming but fair and he’ll try to find them a club.

 

The teachers go to the district and Barbara passes out the cards for District Bingo, which includes classic district happenings and phrases like, “We’ll do our best to accommodate you.” We also learn that tensions run high at the district’s HQ when an older teacher (Jill Basey) bumps into Gregory and then insults him, Janine and Jacob by calling them” Stick Sticky,” “SpongeBob” and “Tommy Pickles.” Then, they get a significantly less hostile welcome from Manny (Josh Segarra) who is happy to see everyone and gives Janine and Gregory his blessing on their new(ish) relationship. While Manny continues delivering personalized greetings Gregory goes for smoothies and Ava runs into her sorority sister and nemesis Crystal (Tatyana Ali).

 

They explain tense pleasantries and then Crystal promises to get all the district’s funding for her elementary school. However, Ava says she’s going to be the one walking away with district funding. Crystal asserts there might not be much left for Abbott because she’s seventh in line to speak. This makes Ava nervous because the seventh spot is the best spot to have. After all, the district almost always says yes to the school in that slot to give the other schools hope.

 

After Crystal and Ava’s exchange, the other teachers are told the meeting is starting and Janine steps away when she gets a voice message from Gregory. When she listens to the message it seems Gregory had a question about the smoothie she ordered and then is interrupted so says goodbye and then what sounds like a very muffled “I love you.” Janine is shocked that Gregory might’ve said the L-word for the first time via voice message.

 

During the meeting Ava confronts Manny about why Abbott wasn’t given the seventh spot despite her Edtalk. Many tells Ava that the district did appreciate the talk and they know they’ve been telling Abbott no for a while, so he says that between the two of them they set aside a good amount of money for the school. He adds that she could sleepwalk through her presentation and still get everything she’s going to ask for.

 

Barbara steps out of the meeting and is recruited by Janine to solve a mystery. She plays the voice memo for Barbara who thinks Gregory said, “I love food.” Janine deflates because she thought Gregory said, “I love you,” although she acknowledges a voice memo would be a weird place for the first “I love you.” Barbara agrees, but she reminds Janine that Gregory Eddie notoriously doesn’t like food.

 

Inside Melissa and Jacob continue playing Bingo and are relieved that they don’t have to worry as much this year. Jacob wants to ask Ava to get more money for clubs, but Melissa doesn’t get why until Jacob explains that students were asking him to find them clubs. This causes Melissa to point out that Jacob is the only person, and he can’t run every club and find an activity for every student and do his full-time job. Then, they get shushed by the board members who say they need complete silence and then it’s Crystal’s turn to speak.

 

As it turns out Gregory took forever because the smoothie shop changed all the names of the smoothies in honor of Valentine’s Day. One notable change was to Barbara’s order which is now called an “I Love You, With Extra Love.” This disappoints Janine, but now she has an answer to her question.

 

Jacob goes for coffee and talks to two other teachers about how the district says no to everything. Mx. Geoffrey (Sabrina Wu) shares how their roof caved in last year and instead of fixing it they sent a counselor every week to talk to the kids about their feelings. This seems to give Jacob an idea.

 

Crystal gave a seemingly impressive presentation that ends with an Amanda Gorman quote. She gets applause from the crowd, but she also gets told her requests are highly unlikely.

 

Jacob continues asking Mx. Geoffrey questions about the counselor the district sent. At the counselor being the most important part of their story, Mx. Geoffry tells Jacob that everyone thinks Abbott teachers are strange, and it’s discussed frequently. Although, the problem with the counselor was that not much could be done one day a week because the demand was so high. Plus, the district would never pay for a counselor to be there for more days.

 

Ava follows Crystal to gloat, but then sees that Crystal is genuinely distraught. She tells her colleague (Brandon Kyle Goodman) that she can’t believe that they didn’t get anything they requested and is dreading having to tell the teachers and kids this. Apparently, things are so bad the students have to share textbooks, and she laments how unfair it is that the distinct is hoarding resources. This seems to bother Ava, who no longer looks so excited about her own presentation.

 

Janine is feeling annoyed about the “I Love You” that wasn’t and that Gregory is so comfortable expressing his love to smoothies. Then Jacob comes to the group with an idea: a school counselor. They all love the kids, but they’re all facing serious issues, and they don’t have the time to give them all the help they need and teach. Melissa, Barbara and Gregory agree it could be good for their kids because the world has changed since they were children. The problem is that it’d be expensive and the district hates paying for stuff so Ava wouldn’t include it in her presentation.

 

So, when the big moment comes he asks Ava if he can do the presentation and does a bait and switch. Instead of asking for what Ava planned to ask for, Jacob makes a school counselor three days a week Abbott’s solitary request. Melissa, Barbara, Ava and Manny are shocked by this for their own reasons. Melissa and Barbara agree that Ava will be livid and kill Jacob. Manny says that if the district approves the request Abbott is leaving $25,000 on the table. The district says yes to the counselor and Ava thinks of Crystal and goes to make a plea of their own.

 

Ava tells the powers that be that Abbott has everything they need this year, so she’d like to ask for discretionary funds that can be divided among the three needy schools that came before her. This would include Crystal and her students, to which the board agrees.

 

Afterwards, Crystal thanks Ava sincerely and says she found it interesting what Jacob says about Abbott having material things. Jacob goes to praise her for what she did for the other schools and Ava tells him that ever since she did something nice ten minutes ago that she’s been looking for someone to destroy to restore order. Barbara says she didn’t see Ava’s act of kindness coming and Ava reiterates that she’s had this covered.

 

Then, Manny comes over and says the board is angry, as in he’s never seen them this pissed. As the board members glare at the Abbott teachers Manny advises them to be on their best behavior because now the district is watching them.

 

Janine and Gregory are leaving the meeting and he says what Ava did was cool and he loved it. Janine sarcastically says that Gregory seems to love everything, which prompts Gregory to ask what’s wrong. She replays the voice memo and explains that she thought he was saying he loved her at first. Gregory responds that he did – he wasn’t talking about Barbara’s smoothie, he was saying he loved Janine. It just sort of slipped out, but it slipped out because it’s how he feels. The plan was to tell her over dinner, but he couldn’t wait because he loves her. At first she does a Manny impression and says it’s sick, but then she records a voice memo for Greogry saying she loves him too. They share a kiss and then they leave.

 

We cut away and see Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) asking the district for $50 and a sandwich, which gives Barbara Bingo because Mr. Johnson asking for something silly was on her Bingo card.