Whitman-Hanson School Committee Approves $66.3 Million Budget
Both Whitman and Hanson face potential overrides as district maintains level service funding
HANSON - March 19 and 26 - The Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee votes 9-1 to approve a $66.3 million budget for fiscal year 2026, setting assessments of $16.4 million for Hanson and $20.9 million for Whitman. At a subsequent meeting on the 26th, they discuss the potential reduction if overrides fail in either town.
The budget maintains current staffing and services but does not add programs like foreign language at the middle school level or expand vocational offerings that committee members desire.
Superintendent Jeff Szymaniak presents the budget as necessary to maintain current educational services while acknowledging both towns face financial challenges that may require override votes.
"My concern is passing a budget at town meeting where there's not going to be an impact on student learning," Szymaniak says. "We're gearing up for a fight after tonight to go forward with both communities. And I say fight in a positive way to support our kids."
Committee members express frustration that the district has already made significant cuts in previous years and has depleted its excess and deficiency (E&D) fund, leaving no financial cushion.
"We don't have the E&D to do it this year. We don't have the ability to do it. We did our cuts already. That was bare minimum last year. We took the last pot out of the E&D. That's not happening this year," says Chair Beth Stafford.
The budget discussion reveals tensions between maintaining educational services and town finances. Committee member Rosemary Hill emphasizes the district's legal obligation to provide adequate education.
"We're supposed to have educationally sound budgets," Hill says. "There's been activity to underfund education and let's not pretend that hasn't happened. The rhetoric, schools cost too much when they're lower lowest in the state for funding per student all of that propaganda and rhetoric has led us to a point where we're not really servicing kids the way that we need to and then parents are taking kids elsewhere, costing more"
Whitman Select Board members Justin Evans and Shawn Kain attend the meeting to discuss the town's financial situation. They explain that Whitman is considering a contingency budget approach tied to an override vote.
"If the override doesn't pass, we must go back and have a special town meeting as opposed to presenting two budgets. I feel like that might be cleaner," Kain says.
Evans adds that if the override fails, "We would reject their budgets as well," referring to the other school assessments in the town’s budget, like South Shore Tech.
Kain notes Whitman faces significant financial constraints, with only about $1 million in new revenue while the school assessment increase alone is $1.8 million.
"Right now the town of Whitman has only taken in about a million dollars in revenue above last year. Just the district assessment is 1.8. So you can see how we're in a difficult bind," Kain says.
Committee members highlight that many budget increases are legally mandated, particularly in special education. Member Kara Moser points out that special education tuition costs have increased 56.7 percent since 2020.
"The school district is given requirements for populations of our students that we don't have an option to lean down or cut the fat from," Moser says. "The only option if we cut our budget is it gets cut from other places, from other student opportunities."
Hillary Kniffen, committee vice chair, notes that the district has consistently worked with towns to reduce budgets in previous years.
"Every year that we have presented a budget, we have then come back with a second budget to take from E&D, to not refill retirements," Kniffen says. "We have done things to lower the assessments to the towns."
Committee member Chris Marks emphasizes that education funding benefits the entire community.
"The education of our students is our primary directive. That is what we're here to do. It is the most important thing that anybody in town can do, whether you have students in the school system or not," Marks says. "Supporting your schools helps your property values. Better schools equals better property values."
Szymaniak notes that 45 towns across Massachusetts are pursuing overrides this year, and 244 districts are in "hold harmless" status, meaning they receive only minimum per pupil aid increases from the state putting the burden of budget growth on property taxes.
The Superintendent plans to attend a state budget hearing on March 24 to advocate for changes to the Chapter 70 education funding formula.
"The Chapter 70 education formula no longer is serving our communities," Szymaniak says.
Committee members urge residents to attend town meetings to support the school budget.
"We need to really push for this budget. We need to really be careful, but we need everybody to be at the town meeting when this does go through," Stafford says. "If both towns go for an override, we must be supportive. We must attend."
The committee will meet again next week after Szymaniak meets with finance committees from both towns to discuss the budget further.
March 24 - The Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee is confronting the possibility of a $2 million budget reduction if operational overrides in both towns fail to pass. The stark reality of these potential cuts dominated discussion at the committee's March 26 meeting.
Superintendent Jeff Szymaniak presents the district with two budget scenarios for the upcoming fiscal year. The proposed budget stands at $66,306,276, representing a 5.36% increase. However, the contingency budget without overrides would be $64,306,276, a mere 2.19% increase, requiring $2 million in cuts.
"When you look at that, a $2 million cut, that's not books, that's not Chromebooks. That's people," says Committee Chair Beth Stafford, emphasizing the human impact of potential reductions.
The Town of Whitman needs $2.4 million to balance its budget for next year and is considering either a one-year or three-year override. Similarly, Hanson is reportedly voting on a $3 million override.
Based on contingency numbers provided by both towns, Whitman's assessment would be $19,759,924 (a 3.26% increase) instead of the requested $20,982,307 (9.65% increase). Hanson's assessment would be $15,674,746 (4.67% increase) rather than the requested $16,452,000 (9.87% increase).
Szymaniak reports that both towns are seeking operational overrides to maintain level services, with no additions being requested by any department in Whitman.
"I am fully in support of the conversations with the chiefs, with the DPW directors to get out there and advocate for what these communities need for level services," Szymaniak says. "I know when we call, we get response and we have appropriate response and the relationships that we have are outstanding."
Committee member Chris Marks encourages residents to advocate at the state level for updated funding formulas.
"A lot of this stuff could be helped by advocating outside of the town, advocating at the state level," Marks says. "All around Massachusetts would be served by having an updated chapter 70 funding formula."
The committee also discusses a proposal from the Regional Agreement Committee (RAC) regarding how non-mandated transportation costs are allocated between Whitman and Hanson.
Currently, non-mandated busing costs (for students living between half a mile and a mile and a half from school) are billed to each town based on a pupil-mileage formula. The proposal would change this to match how reimbursable transportation is billed – using the overall district's pupil census, resulting in approximately a 60-40 split between the towns.
This change would shift about $50,000 in costs from Whitman to Hanson, according to district officials.
Committee member Rosemary Hill, who serves on the RAC, advocates for the change.
"We should see any time that we're thinking of aid to benefit a town opposed to benefit a purpose or a goal collectively of education as diversion of money outside of education," Hill says. "I really think it's a failure of understanding this aid that brought this about."
Hill argues that the current method is "unorthodox" compared to other regional districts and potentially increases overall transportation costs by preventing the district from optimizing bus routes across town lines.
"The idea has to fall away from towns into the best way to lower the overall cost of this service," Hill says.
However, Stafford expresses concerns about the timing of such a change.
"I don't see that Hanson is going to agree with us at all. And I really don't know if this is the right time to do this," Stafford says. "We finally got how we divvy up between the two towns and how we pay. We finally did that the correct way. And there was a lot of people who still have a problem with that."
Committee member Kara Moser expresses concern about the timing and public perception of these discussions.
"Given the financial climate we're in, given those feelings that still very much exist in Hanson, that it's a conversation that's gonna be a really hard sell," Moser says. "I do worry about, even though this isn't happening now, the just the fact that the conversations are happening are gonna show up on social media and people are gonna suddenly like run with that."
The RAC is seeking input from the School Committee, Select Boards, and Finance Committees before making a formal recommendation. Any changes to the regional agreement would eventually require approval from town meetings in both communities.
Committee member Dawn Byers notes that the current non-mandated transportation costs total approximately $250,000, with Whitman paying about $207,000 and Hanson paying $47,000.
"Our towns are in such fiscal trouble," Byers says, suggesting that the entire approach to non-mandated transportation might need reconsideration given the financial challenges.
Disclosure: South Shore News founder Justin Evans is a current member of the Whitman Select Board.