KINGSTON — September 21, 2026 — The Kingston School Committee voted to move $311,936.08 of the $313,934.55 left over from the school budget into a stabilization fund rather than return it to the town, which gets back $1,998.47. The committee also accepted a $70,000 donation from the Kingston Foundation for Education and a $4,500 memorial gift for the elementary school library.
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Almost none of the money Kingston’s schools left unspent is going back to town coffers. The district’s finance director told the committee the year-end closeout report totaled $313,934.55 and asked that all but a fraction of it move into a stabilization fund rather than revert to the Town of Kingston.
“Per DESE’s regulation, we can put up to 2% of the budget into the stabilization fund.” said Stefani Hatton, Director of Finance and Operations.
The request was $311,936.08 into the fund and $1,998.47 returned to the town. Sheila Vaughn moved those figures without change, and the committee approved them on a voice vote.
The Kingston Foundation for Education opened the night with money moving the other way, presenting a check for $70,000, the proceeds of a year that included two new fundraisers, a giving market and a trivia night.
A second gift of $4,500 came from 56 donors, former students and parents, in memory of Nancy Babington, a Kingston Elementary School kindergarten teacher who taught in town for 23 years and died Nov. 27, 2025, at 83. One donor gave $1,000, and the drive finished $500 short of a $5,000 goal with its online fundraiser still open.
Minutes later the committee recessed into executive session to discuss collective bargaining strategy, including a KTA grievance, KTA and KESPA, and a KTA memorandum of agreement on snow emergencies, and to approve executive session minutes of July 6, 2026 28:00. The roll call was 4-0, with one of the five members recorded as present rather than voting. Back in open session, the committee approved the KTA memorandum of agreement on a voice vote.
Student handbooks were approved with policy and procedural updates cleared by legal counsel, along with language changes Principal Jake Galewski described as more neuroaffirming and inclusive. Member Jesse Keith asked about the dress code, which now leaves hats and bandanas to parental discretion rather than barring them during school hours. Galewski answered that the items are still monitored in school and that a hat is sometimes an accommodation for a student with a visual impairment.
