Natick’s budget submittal meeting took place on Monday night, with the town and school administrations making public their official fiscal year ’26 proposals for the first time. The proposed budgets, due by Feb. 1, were shared at a joint meeting of the Select Board, School Committee, and Finance Committee, the appointed group that vets budgets and other articles ahead of Town Meeting. (See full recording of Feb. 3 meeting on Natick Pegasus.)
The town and school administrations have already been talking about the budget, minus some details, for months as part of the usual process but also in light of a possible $8 million override vote going on the annual town election ballot this spring. Having said that, School Committee Chair Shai Fuxman kicked off the joint meeting by stating that “the goal tonight is to begin the budget process.” School expenses account for well over half of overall town expenses when you factor in shared services, such as health care costs.
Town budget
Town Administrator Jamie Errickson kicked things off, displaying the thick printed budget books and acknowledging “this is obviously a very unique year in that we’re dialoguing about a potential override.” Paper copies of books are available at the library and Town Hall (not that we want to encourage the town to spend money printing stuff during these tight times…), though you can review the 315-page town and 130-page school budget books online. Errickson and team emphasized that Monday’s presentations were high-level overviews with a focus on how the budgets came together and how to read through these documents.
John Townsend, deputy town administrator & director of finance, assured during his presentation that the proposed $202M town budget is balanced, as required, but added that “I will have to say that doing that this year was somewhat of a challenge.” The preliminary school budget comes in at just under $93M.
The overall budget, which does not assume an override passing and is based 80% on covering staff expenses, pretty much maintains core services and supports only limited capital investment. About a half million dollars worth of town government positions—including everything from a deputy fire chief to library pages—are being left vacant pending override approval.
No new initiatives are being funded. Proposed ones are listed in the budget book, and include cardiac screening for police officers, converting a mental health social worker to full time, and hiring a bylaw compliance agent within the Community & Economic Development Department.
On the positive side, Townsend and team foresee local receipts from non-property taxes, fees, etc., increasing 11% from the prior fiscal year, though warned growth is slowing from the immediate post-pandemic period. Also on the concerning side is a 37.2% increase in the use of free cash for operational purposes—a big focus on the proposed override is that it would make the town much less reliant on free cash for operations, a best practice recommended by the state and endorsed by town administration (free cash refers to collected revenue that exceeds expectations, and isn’t easy to project from year to year). The town’s free cash reserves would be lower than preferred. The town would like to see its amount of free cash used for operating vs. other expenses flipped.
Some expenses remain unclear because the town has not received the information yet from outside sources. This includes state aid and health insurance rates. Without an override, town expenses will fall more than 1%, while school expenses will rise nearly 6.3%.
Some in town have encouraged the administration to consider divvying up the override over multiple years in an effort to lessen the blow to taxpayers, but we heard no references to this approach during the joint meeting.
School budget
Supt. Dr. Melissa Spash shared an overview of what she described as a fiscally responsible school budget in line with district priorities during the joint meeting (and added more details later in the School Committee meeting). The School Committee voted in December for $1.4M in cuts below level services, and the school department identified another $2.8M in possible cuts based on the preliminary operating budget put forth by the town assuming no override.
The school budget book is 80 pages longer than last year’s to make room for additional information, such as three-year budget histories per department and a comprehensive staff overview that includes additions, reductions, and role changes.
The recommended budget is less detailed in some ways than the town administration budget, said Matt Gillis, assistant superintendent for finance & operations. “We didn’t want to go through the exercise in great detail of reducing $2.8 million too early because it affects the way we provide services in the classroom for the rest of the year,” he said.
But the schools’ budget book does show budget drivers and dives deeper into them: Instructional costs are the big ones based on current and expected wage increases, though rising transportation and special education tuition are also factors. The schools also lay out recommendations for increased service fees (sports, transportation, field trips) if the override does not pass. In addition, the budget book details positions that would get cut in a non-override scenario, with classroom teachers and interventionists/tutors being hit hardest, with 16 and 33.6 jobs eliminated.
Natick Public Schools budget drivers are broken out in the budget book;FY26 Recommended Budget assumes an override.
Where to go from here
The School Committee discussed the budget at its Feb. 3 meeting and will have further discussion at upcoming meetings once members have a chance to plow through the budget book. A public hearing is set for March 17, and the Committee expects to vote on the budget a week later.
The Select Board will discuss the budget and proposed override at its Feb. 5 meeting, and a public forum on the override is set for Feb. 11 at the Community-Senior Center (an online element will also be supported). The Select Board will hold a meeting dedicated to the proposed override on Feb. 12 and will discuss whether to put it on the ballot.
The Finance Committee has four subcommittees that will tackle various aspects of the budgets, and set up numerous subcommittee and full FinCom meetings to discuss them publicly. FinCom Chair Todd Gillenwater strongly encouraged the public to engage with the group throughout the process, and promised that meetings will get into nitty-gritty details, like which trucks need to be scrapped and what they would be replaced with.
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