Grafton officials lay out $1.6M shortfall, offer override, enterprise fee and cuts including potential school staff reductions

Grafton School Committee Chair Amy Marr heard a joint presentation on Feb. 4 from Town Administrator Evan Broussard and Superintendent Dr. Jay Cummings laying out a municipal and school budget gap of roughly $1.6 million for fiscal 2026 and describing options that include one-time reserves, a property-tax override, converting solid waste to an enterprise fund and program and staff reductions in the school budget.

The town side, presented by Town Administrator Evan Broussard, showed an overall requested budget increase of about 6.27 percent driven largely by so-called "unclassified" costs—pension, Medicare/FICA, health insurance and other benefit lines that the town cannot easily control. Broussard said the town has about "$5,100,000 ish" in municipal stabilization and about "$4,400,000 in free cash," which he described as roughly 11 percent of operating reserves. He reported pegging new growth at about $1.26 million for 2025 and that the requested operating package currently leaves a deficit in the low six figures (Broussard referred to it as a negative "$26,000" in his slide sequence) after recent adjustments and updated state estimates.

Broussard summarized four paths forward: (1) use free cash and stabilization to cover $500,000–$700,000 of reductions and bridge the gap with one-time revenue, (2) seek a property-tax override that would permanently raise the levy, (3) convert municipal solid-waste services to an enterprise fund to recover roughly…