Wellesley Annual Town Meeting on Wednesday, April 2 picked up where it left off the night before, with departments sharing their proposed fiscal year 2026 budgets. Remaining was the School Department, whose $94M budget was also the subject of a motion to split it out from the larger Omnibus budget.

(See full meeting recording by Wellesley Media.)

School Committee Chair Linda Chow and Supt. Dr. David Lussier stressed that the School Department budget, built on supporting equity and excellence, is largely a level-services one. It pretty much supports the same services that it did this past year, with a bit of strategic this and that included. They emphasized that most of their budget consists of non-discretionary spending based on union-negotiated compensation for employees, plus out-of-district placements.

The budget’s increase came in within the Select Board’s 3.25% guidance and headcount is being reduced.

“This year was a particularly challenging budget process and likely a sign of things to come in the years ahead,” Chow said. Though Lussier also used the budget presentation as an opportunity to celebrate recent happenings, such as the lights at the Hunnewell track & field and the Fiske Elementary School Blue Ribbon designation.

Lussier invited those who love Tolstoy novels to dig in to the School Department’s 447-page budget document. Fortunately for the School Department, there was more peace than war during this Town Meeting session. With the new Hunnewell and Hardy Elementary Schools up and running, the School Department wasn’t looking for big capital funds this time around.

Lussier described the district’s approach to tightening its belt with dropping enrollment (elementary school enrollment is creeping up a bit…), including by consolidating professional development funds.

Town Meeting went relatively light on the questions, though Lussier was asked about efforts to increase staff diversity in light of a more diverse student population (some progress, but it’s been a struggle), the district’s approach to literacy education (a multi-pronged effort), and shared costs with other departments across town.

Motion to divide

A motion to divide Article 8 Motion 2, by splitting out the school budget, was then presented by Town Meeting member Michael Tobin.

“This motion enables TMMs to have independent, thoughtful scrutiny on town services vs. educational priorities,” Tobin said, in presenting the motion. “With multiple budget overrides already facing us in the coming years, this Town Meeting needs the information and the tools to effectively perform its role.”

Citing newspaper articles from the mid-1980s, Tobin found that today’s budget is more than seven times the size of what it was back then. So a much more complex matter.

Splitting out large budgets from within the Omnibus had been raised leading up to Town Meeting by Advisory Committee members during their vetting of Article 8 Motion 2. Though Advisory voted 8-3 for unfavorable action on the motion to divide during Town Meeting.

Neither the Select Board nor School Committee favored this motion either, with both citing the late timing of the proposal. Budget planning is a months-long process, and Select Board Chair Colette Aufranc and School Committee Chair Linda Chow encouraged people interested in providing feedback to get involved from the start or at least earlier along the way.

While all town residents are encouraged to take in Town Meeting, we’ve got your back juuust in case you didn’t catch it. Please consider supporting The Swellesley Report with a tax-deductible donation for the readable kind of news coverage you’ve come to expect from us.

Aufranc, who said the Select Board was not able to reach consensus to take a vote on the motion, asked: “What actions can be taken by splitting the question that cannot already be achieved with the current structure? In short, we don’t believe there are any.” She pointed to the ability to make motions to amend line items in non-school budgets and to direct increases or decreases to the school budget. Aufranc reiterated earlier comments about budgets from school and other departments being part of one integrated budget across town.

Town Meeting member Gig Babson rose to speak as well, to provide historical context. She introduced the concept of the Omnibus budget article in 1990 when she was moderator. She said at the time there were typically 70 or 80 warrant articles, at least ten for separate departmental budgets.

“There was the opportunity to see all the discrete pieces into one budget,” she said. “You had a much better sense of what the financial situation was for the town…” Babson argued that the Omnibus budget approach has “reasonably met the test of time,” and that it would require time to possibly unwind it.

A handful of Town Meeting members voiced their support or not for the motion to divide. One member said she thought the school budget gets “a pass” by being part of the broader budget. Another said she was frustrated by the “opacity” of the school budget, especially related to the shared services that are broken out. Those against the motion re-emphasized options to get involved earlier in the budget process and echoed comments about there being ways now to question departmental budgets within the larger one.

The motion failed to pass by a count of 67 for, 141 against, and 1 abstention. That was followed by a vote on Article 8 Motion 2, which passed by a 186-20 vote.

(Note: Budget totals of $212, 539 and $224, 493 were mentioned during Town Meeting. As explained in the Advisory report: “The FY26 Omnibus Budget request is $212,539,485, a $6,383,402 or 3.1%, increase over the final FY25 Omnibus Budget request. Please note from the TWFP that the overall FY26 Town budget is $224,493,903 a 1.13% increase over FY25. While the Omnibus Budget accounts for most of the Town spending, it does not include other items funded with Free Cash (various Articles) or appropriations from the Community Preservation Fund (Article 16), property tax abatements and state and county assessments. Appropriations using Exempt and Inside the Levy borrowed funds are indirectly included in the Omnibus Budget through the associated debt service (principal and interest payments debt).”

Making short work of Articles 3-7

Whereas wrapping up Article 8 and the motion to divide Motion 2 accounted for about two-thirds of the three-and-a-half-hour Town Meeting session on night #2, the legislative body plowed through Articles 3-7 and their motions in about an hour. All motions passed by voice vote, many unanimously.

These articles included the consent agenda (motions that it’s anticipated will be approved without debate), a series of motions related to shifting money from one pool to another (to cover things like remaining costs for the police parking lot repaving and health insurance premiums), addressing the Town Clerk’s compensation. Articles also covered the town’s overdue update to it compensation and job classification plan—Wellesley”s looking to retain its good employees and attract new ones given that employee turnover is so disruptive and costly.

Up next, when Town Meeting reconvenes on Monday, April 7, will be Article 9 Motion 1. It has to do with a Recreation Department revolving fund.

More: Wellesley’s 2025 Annual Town Meeting opens: Getting down to business—and a cliffhanger!