Above: You can preview the slides the Select Board and School Committee have created for their presentations to voters this Monday night. (images cropped from files)
The Select Board Chair asked me to share the slides to be used in his presentation to Special Town Meeting voters this Monday night.
While I’m at it, I’m also sharing the presentations the School Committee has planned on the Articles and the state of Neary School’s failing roof.
Here’s a preview of what voters can expect to see and hear about on Monday night.
For more details on the March 2nd Special Town Meeting, click here.
According to Select Board Chair Andrew Dennington, the Town Moderator has agreed to give the Article sponsors 12 minutes for presentations.
That will begin with the Select Board’s presentation, explaining the reason for the financial requests, overviewing the Articles and sharing the board’s full support of Articles 1 & 4. (You can open a pdf version here or click through the images of slides below.)
The actual presentation will be narrated with more context than included. Without that context, readers may be confused by the budget levy numbers cited what those mean.
The figures in slide 8 relate to the projected impact that approving the funding of multiple Articles for building project studies would have on the budgets to be brought to Annual Town Meeting on April 11th.
A levy deficit would lead to voters being asked to approve a Proposition 2½ Override this spring. (Scroll to the bottom of this post for more details.)
The Select Board’s presentation will be followed by the School Committee presentation. (The board believed that NSBORO Schools Superintendent Gregory Martineau will make that presentation.)
That presentation will mainly focus on Neary School building issues, and the committee’s position that the building needs renovating. (It also touches on their opposition to Articles 2 & 3.)
You can open the pdf here or click through the images below:
A third presentation hones in with more details about Neary’s failing roof. (To be honest, I’m not sure if that will be included in the “12 minutes” or used later to answer questions if they are raised.)
You can view the “Roof Investigation Report Summary” presentation here, or click through the slides below:
The final slide above includes an explanation about ADA “triggers” is based on financial data that the Select Board expects to change later this year. You can read about that in my prior post here (under the subhead “Neary Roof”).
The school committee may also have handouts at the meeting from the materials they have recently been publicly promoting. You can find their flyers and other documents on a dedicated page of their website here.
The Town’s website with STM details and materials is here.
And you can find my past coverage (plus related letters to the editor) about the Special Town Meeting here.
FY27 Levy Balance Details
As I noted higher up in this post, slide 8 of the Select Board’s presentation refers to the “FY27 Levy Balance”. That’s terminology not all readers may be familiar with.
The Levy Balance is the amount of wiggle room the Town has to increase non-exempt expenses in their draft budget for the upcoming Fiscal Year July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027.
If they exceed the levy cap (with a negative balance), the Town wouldn’t be able to levy enough property taxes to cover the budget without a supermajority of Town Meeting voters approving a Proposition 2½. (That would be at the Annual Town Meeting, not this Monday night.) It would also require a majority approval on a Town ballot. (That would be through the Annual Town election in May.)
The Town is near the end of its budgeting season as it prepares for the April 11th Annual Town Meeting (and posting a Warrant two weeks prior). The Select Board and Advisory Committee are still working out what their final recommendations will be for the Operating Budget and Capital Expenses they’ll ask voters to fund at the Annual Town Meeting.
On that topic, the Select Board’s Slide 8 identifies the impact of approving multiple combinations of Articles, but not all potential combos. By my calculation, passing Articles 1 & 3 (but not 2) would leave the estimated levy in the black by about $49K.
All of their financial scenarios above appear to bake in the assumption that both Article 1 and 4 pass. But (as noted in slide 9), if Article 1 is rejected, the motion under Article 4 will request $2.35M more than if it is approved.
Meanwhile, if Article 4 fails that is another $4.5M to $6.85M that wouldn’t hit next year’s budget. But the situation the schools would be left with would be so dire, the Town would have to bring the ask back to voters at the Annual Town Meeting. (When it comes to replacing Neary’s roof, failure is not an option in the opinion of Town and school officials.)
It is worth noting that the stated figures don’t mean that that the Town would definitely need a Prop 2½ Override if Articles 1-3 pass. Alternatively, officials may look at slashing some expenses in proposed budgets to try to fit under the levy cap. But it’s an open question as to what costs would be cut.
