HANOVER — September 16, 2026 — The Hanover Public Schools closed fiscal 2026 with a balanced operating budget and a $1.9 million rollover into fiscal 2027, but Superintendent Matt Ferron told the School Committee the district runs out of money at the end of fiscal 2028 and made a three-year funding strategy through fiscal 2029 one of five goals for the year.
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The district finished fiscal 2026 with total operating expenditures of $43,778,354, about a quarter of a percent above the projections the finance department presented in November, and the rollover came in above the roughly $1.5 million projected then.
Operating expenses are projected to grow by a minimum of 3.5% a year against town appropriation guardrails of 2.75% to 3%, and Michael Oates, Director of Finance and Operations, told the committee the district is not likely to see anywhere near this level of rollover again as it moves into fiscal 2028, 2029 and 2030.
Projections currently run out through fiscal 2028: November’s had that year needing roughly $100,000 from the special education reserve, which would be the district’s first draw on that reserve in about four years, and fiscal 2029 carrying a deficit of about $1.5 million. Roughly $750,000 of the special education reserve is authorized and available to the school department, though the account’s current balance is higher.
The math is going to be easy. It’s the people stuff that’s going to be the challenge. — Superintendent Matt Ferron (42:43)
Payroll, technology and special education costs drive the budget, Ferron said, and transportation is running higher than the district expected. The strategy work will run through the budget working group and the town, testing levers including how the town uses free cash and whether a technology reserve fund can be established.
The five goals are an artificial intelligence framework and roadmap for the district, the three-year funding strategy, advancing the Cedar School roof repair, advancing the Hanover Middle School building project through the statement of interest phase, and completing the cellular communications tower project at the Cedar and high school campus. Two members pressed for a sixth.
I really think that student learning and improving student outcomes should be a focus of the district every year, and that there should be a goal to support that. — Vice Chair Ryan Hall (50:30)
Jaclyn Jorgenson agreed, saying a district-wide student learning goal would give teachers something to anchor their own professional goals to. Ferron asked the two of them to work out what such a goal should look like and bring it back to the administration. The posted agenda lists a vote on the superintendent’s goals for the committee’s next meeting.
