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Uxbridge officials press for additional HR/payroll staff as town and school workloads grow
Summary
Town staff and board members said Uxbridge’s HR office is understaffed for the workload of 474 active employees and roughly 300 retirees; the FY26 proposal includes a payroll/admin FTE and plans to allocate costs to school accounts where appropriate.
Members of the select board and finance committee raised concerns on April 9 about human resources and payroll capacity in Uxbridge, pressing for an additional payroll/admin FTE in FY26 to handle onboarding, payroll input and retiree assistance.
Town Manager Steve and staff described current staffing in the HR office and the strain created by combined town and school responsibilities. Steve told the committee there are roughly 474 full‑ and part‑time employees (321 school, 153 town) and that the HR office currently has a small team serving both the town and schools. "We have 474 full and part time employees. And we have 1 HR person," he said, underscoring the mismatch between workload and staffing.
HR staff noted that much of their time is taken by retiree benefit management and open‑enrollment work. Danielle (HR/payroll staff) was cited as handling more than 300 retirees and their family members; staff asked that the committee explore a funded, additional payroll administrative position to relieve recurring bottlenecks. Amanda, the town’s HR lead, described the continuous nature of onboarding and retiree counseling and said a dedicated payroll position would allow the HR lead to focus on policy, negotiations and higher‑value tasks.
Board members debated whether the school department should fund a portion of the new position; town staff said some of the new hire’s cost can be allocated to the school through existing cost‑sharing arrangements and schedule allocations. The town also flagged space constraints at Town Hall as a limiting factor for adding staff and discussed short‑term options such as partitioning existing office space.
No final hiring decision was made on April 9; the budget proposal includes the requested FTE and staff said they will continue to refine funding sources (including possible use of daycare tuitions or school contributions) as the FY26 budget is finalized.
