MARSHFIELD — September 15, 2026 — Marshfield Public Schools have lost 75 staff positions from last year to this year, School Committee Chair Sean Costello said September 15 as he addressed the town’s failed override vote, and a district administrator reported a $57.8 million fiscal 2027 budget, down from $60.4 million, with no circuit breaker money carried into the new year.
The Full Story
The Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance, Tom Miller, presenting the budget update said the fiscal 2027 budget is “basically complete,” with a couple of days left for personnel adjustments while staffing remains in flux at the start of the year. The fiscal 2026 budget was formally closed the previous week, with a full report promised for the next meeting.
The closeout left the district with little cushion. The district carried $30,000 in circuit breaker money into fiscal 2026 and is carrying nothing into fiscal 2027, Miller said, and had to “work with revolving accounts to get FY26 closed out.”
“So we’re in a little difficult spot,” Miller said, calling the drop to $57.8 million from $60.4 million “very, very substantial.”
Chair Sean Costello said the override vote “did not go the way I had hoped or that many in the district had hoped”, noted that turnout was 40 percent and called it “a pretty close election.” He said he would not opine on the result but wanted to say publicly that it was not a verdict on the district’s staff.
“It’s simply a reflection on the fact that there is an affordability issue in Marshfield and Massachusetts and in the United States right now. And this is a lot for people, especially when those impacts have not yet been felt.”
— Sean Costello, School Committee Chair [34:39]
He described the ballot question as something close to a hypothetical for voters. “We were asking people before school came back to help us avoid these massive layoffs and people haven’t yet seen the impact of the cuts,” Costello said. “Unfortunately, they’ll see them this year.”
He asked administrators for the number of positions lost from last year to this year. Superintendent Patrick Sullivan answered that 54 or 55 staff members were affected and another 20 positions were left unfilled, on top of 20 positions lost over the two prior years. Sullivan said the reductions have “a significant impact on class sizes and programming.”
Costello put the year-over-year total on the record. “From last year to this year, we have lost 75 staff positions,” he said. “That is significant.”
“It is never my intention nor is it my position to chastise anybody for voting the way they feel they should vote,” Costello said. “I totally understand that raising taxes is a very personal issue.” He said the committee has a duty to advocate for public education and would continue to explain why it sought the funding, but that the work must be done “realistically, and getting that information out there is a part of doing that.”
