The Swellesley Report

Wellesley Town Meeting on Tuesday, March 31 for the first time in decades voted on separate motions for town and school budgets. This dramatic change in protocol—proposed during last year’s Town Meeting and put forward by the Select Board for this spring—actually did not result in any dramatic results. Each motion, 8.2 for the town budget and 8.3 for the school budget, was overwhelmingly approved after just over an hour of presentations and questions/comments.

(See Wellesley Media recording of the March 31 session.)

The overall town and school budget adds up to $226.2m, with $121.5m on the municipal side, $96.8 on the school side, and $2.8 for free cash to balance the budget. The budget represents less than a 1% increase from the previous year’s, due largely to a smaller application of free cash for FY27 (which starts on July 1, 2026).

Municipal (non-school) budget

Presentations on the roughly $121.5m municipal budget were made by reps for the town, the Department of Public Works, and the Board of Library Trustees.

Select Board Chair Marjorie Freiman explained that splitting the town and school budgets into separate motions was done to allow for a clearer picture to Town Meeting members and residents of how funds under the overall budget (aka, omnibus budget) are spent when you break out shared expenses like those for healthcare.

“This was a challenging budget year in which the board requested level service budgets and maintenance of all staffing levels,” Freiman said, noting serious consideration was given to anticipated significant healthcare cost increases (that turned out not to be so large after all). “Boards and departments worked diligently to meet” the budget guidelines set out by the Select Board, she said. The town is also bargaining with all unions this year as it seeks to satisfy employees and maintain competitiveness in hiring and retaining these workers.

Beyond operating budgets, the board had requested a review of cash capital carryover from previous years and it was revealed that $6m was available from projects not started or completed. These available funds made it possible for the board to decrease cash capital outlays for FY27.

Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop took over the town presentation from there, building on her talk the previous night about the Town-Wide Financial Plan.

One thing Jop and other town leaders have touted is Wellesley’s avoidance of an operating budget override for the 12th straight year, even as other communities are approving overrides or putting them up for vote (Natick, for example, adopted a $7m override last year). Wellesley continues to make conservative revenue assumptions, and is attempting to keep spending in line with that, having recommended 3% budget increases for most departments, including the big ones.

One area where revenue has increased is via motor vehicle excise taxes, as new multifamily housing developments have brought more cars to town. One area where expenses are lower relates to pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) contributions, as those programs get closer to being fully funded.

Department of Public Works Director Dave Cohen started off his dive into the proposed DPW level-services budget by joking about “there being no snow in the forecast,” an allusion to the busy winter his team had clearing snow and ice from Wellesley roads.

Among items he pointed out were $532k in capital deferrals to help the down balance its budget, and a projected decrease in Recycling & Disposal Facility revenue for FY27. Capital funds will be used in the coming fiscal year for street improvements, playing fields work, and vehicle replacement, among other things.

Marla Robinson, Chair for the Board of Library Trustees, rounded out the town budget presentations. It was another busy year for the library system, which had some 358k visitors. Robinson previewed that the Hills branch is in for interior and website upgrades this year thanks to a private donation.

The library system’s budget is going up slightly, largely as a result of step increases for employees who are hitting thresholds in their careers. Also of note, the library is consolidating two part-time positions into one full-time job. $25k was removed from planned cash capital for parking lot improvements as a result of town-wide efforts to contain capital costs.

The Advisory Committee had a favorable recommendation for the town budget, and Town Meeting members had just a handful of questions for presenters. The town has improved its public facing documents, such as the Town-Wide Financial Plan, in recent years. (That, combined with ongoing reporting from Swellesley, has helped to make for a more informed Town Meeting and public. Hey, everyone else at Town Meeting was patting themselves and their teams on the back, so why not us?)

Questions from Town Meeting members focused on breaking out the shared costs for schools ($44.9m, per the Town-Wide Financial Plan presentation, page 4), as well as funding for police mental health expenses and those related to dealing with federal agencies and for emerging fire department challenges like fighting battery fires (Town Meeting was assured all of this is property funded).

Article 8 Motion 2 passed by a count of 199/2/0 (this vote total represents about 84% of Town Meeting members).

School budget

Before School Committee and School Department presenters addressed Town Meeting, Moderator Mark Kaplan made clear what the town legislative body’s role is regarding the $98.6m school budget, which meets the Select Board’s 3% increase guideline and represents the lowest percentage increase since FY23. Unlike with the broader town budget, Town Meeting members cannot based on state statute make any motions to increase or decrease line items within the school budget.

The budget was settled upon “through a close calibration of student enrollment and individual student needs to staffing needs rather than cuts to programming,” said School Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch. “This is a far different story than many of our peer districts which are facing drastic cuts to programming or budget overrides, or both.” The School Committee refers to its budget as being largely a level-service one, with a few “modest investments” totaling about $26k focused on strategic priorities.

Supt. Dr. David Lussier, feeling at home at Wellesley High School, took things from there. He presented the proposed Wellesley Public Schools budget for fiscal year 2027 (and in thanking Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Cindy Mahr for work on what he said will be her last WPS budget, he said she’d being moving on to a new professional opportunity).

“The story of the WPS budget for FY27 is a story of maintaining a focus on academic excellence and social/emotional health of our students while also navigating a very tricky and complicated fiscal landscape both for our school resources and that for the town as well,” Lussier said, noting that WPS is heading into year four of a 5-year strategic plan that guides its efforts.

Lussier referred to 10-year longitudinal analysis done to help gain and share understanding of why costs are rising as enrollment declines—a regular focus for Town Meeting members and others in town.

“I think the headline here is that any savings from declining enrollment doesn’t come close to offsetting the non-discretionary increases in spending, a trend that has been well documented in communities throughout the Commonwealth,” he said.

As always, Lussier shared enrollment charts showing declines and increases over the years, and of course the declines in recent years (along with decreases in the number of elementary school sections). One result of shrinking enrollment will be the cutting of 12 full-time equivalents, amounting to $968k in savings; Lussier broke out the specifics on which positions are coming and going.

The superintendent pointed to big increases for this services organization in personnel costs—they’re up about 32% over 10 years—and staff compensation makes up the bulk of WPS’s budget (and this is another collective bargaining year).

Lussier also referred to mandated services, such as special education, and rising transportation costs (student fees remain the same in FY27); on special ed, he said the town saves millions by keeping students within the district when possible, and expects to generate a couple hundred thousand in revenue in FY27 by serving students from out of district.

The Advisory Committee made a favorable recommendation by a vote of 9-3, with one abstention. Those not in support wanted to send schools a message about school performance, administrative vs. student facing investments, and general transparency. Though others worried about the ramifications of what not passing the budget would be, such as requiring a Special Town Meeting in the near-term.

Town Meeting members hit school reps with a flurry of questions. Patti Quigley complimented the schools on what she said was a budget featuring any number you could want to find. She asked, after pointing to data about classroom sizes, at what point more school consolidation would be an option. Lussier said that was a difficult question, as class sizes per school vary based on each student cohort. The schools will soon get results of an externally-run enrollment report that will provide more information, though he said the expectation is that elementary school population is expected to remain pretty steady. He spoke of the lack of appetite in town by many to move away from the neighborhood school model. “Right now we really don’t see a pathway that we could consolidate from six to five schools,” he said.

Lussier was also asked about projections for incoming students based on new housing developments in town, and why past projections have been off. The superintendent said projections are based in part on what is seen at neighboring communities. Town Meeting member Don Shepard suggested that perhaps the demographics of families moving into the Wellesley developments differ from those in other communities, and have fewer school-age kids. Lussier said the new enrollment study might have relevant findings on this matter.

Some questions had to be anticipated, as they are raised regularly at Town Meeting or other forums.

Town Meeting member Paul Merry wanted to know where things stand on staff diversity related to student diversity. Lussier said the school system has been focused on this for a while and has had some marginal success, going from about 90% of teachers being white to 88% over the past few years, but with a declining staff and contractural rules in place that protect more senior employees, there are challenges to progress.

Town Meeting member Michael Tobin, after citing declining enrollment, asked about administrative headcount and costs. Lussier explained that “sometimes there can be confusion on what’s an administrative cost,” referring to staff such as math or reading coaches that support teachers but who may not be student facing. “Those kinds of support roles have represented the largest growth in district-wide positions supporting our schools. At a centralized staffing position our numbers are actually very lean compared to our neighboring communities,” he said.

Town Meeting approved the school budget by a vote of Passed 184-10.

Up next on Monday, April 6: Article 22 (Authorize Increase in Retirement Cost of Living Adjustment Base).

Also at Town Meeting

• A $1.1m free cash transfer to the Board of Public Works as a supplemental appropriation to cover winter maintenance costs was approved via motion 1 under Article 7. This was an extreme winter, with 28 events requiring Department of Public Works action for snow and ice removal.
• A request for a supplemental $200k appropriation (on top of the budgeted $480k) to cover legal expenses was approved. The state’s proposed housing plans on MassBay property was unexpected by the town, and prompted the Select Board to hire special counsel to assist in legal matters related to this. The Advisory Committee recommended favorable action by a 9-3 vote; Town Meeting members had no comments or questions, and approved motion 2 under Article 7 by voice vote. Moderator Kaplan had made clear there would be no opportunity to debate the pros and cons of the state’s MassBay plan itself.

More: Town Meeting scorecard

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