Select Board Endorses $170 Million Municipal Budget Recommendation From Town Administration

The Select Board approved the town administration's proposed budget for inclusion on the 2026 Annual Town Meeting warrant last Wednesday, notably without a request for a funding increase from the Nantucket Public Schools and the Nantucket Community School. The total budget is projected at $170.3 million, including transfers to the town’s enterprise funds such as the stormwater, sewer, and Our Island Home operations.

The Select Board declined to include the schools’ request, totaling $225,000, because it would have put the town’s budget around $93,000 in the red.

“I think the budget is frankly too close to the bone as it sits right now for me to feel comfortable adding more expense,” Select Board member Brooke Mohr said. “We’re a little between a rock and a hard place.”

There is still time to amend the budget before Town Meeting, which several Select Board members suggested was a possibility if the increased funding remained necessary. The Finance Committee typically waits until the last moment to vote on its budget recommendation, immediately before the warrant is finalized and mailed to voters, giving time for adjustments later in the process.

Finance director Brian Turbitt acknowledged that the town could make up the discrepancy if necessary, but warned that many unknowns remain in the budget that could further increase the deficit.

“There are some open items, to be completely forthcoming. State aid is a big unknown. The governor hasn’t even released a budget,” Turbitt said. “It’s difficult to knowingly go into the budget season with about a $93,000 deficit with so many other things unknown as well.”

Superintendent Beth Hallett was requesting $75,000 for NPS and $150,000 for the Community School, which is part of the public school district.

Hallett said that the increase is necessary to cover its contractual obligations under the collective bargaining agreement signed with the teachers' union. If they can’t secure the funding, they’ll have to leave a position vacant.

Under the agreement, teachers receive increased pay if they have a higher level of educational attainment. The deadline to request an increase is November 1st, which is after the deadline for the school to submit its budget to the town. When the school filed its budget, administrators were not aware of how many requests would come in. Now, the budget can’t cover those expenses.

“We’re dealing with people’s livelihoods here,” Superintendent Elizabeth Hallett said.

NPS Chief Financial Officer Martin Anguelov called it a “precarious situation.”

The Community School needs the increase in part to cover dramatically increased health insurance costs after being level-funded for the past four years. It is at risk of being forced to cut programming and staff hours, implementing additional program fee increases, and eliminating all staff raises for the next fiscal year.

“I don't think we can go much farther at this point, based on what I've raised prices to,” Community School executive director Alicia Graziadei said at a budget workshop Monday. “We're just trying to make sure everyone gets paid at the end of the day.”

The Select Board worried about the cost of both requests.

“I would like to see it go through the process,” Select Board member Matt Fee said. “I’d like to approve our budget now, and then see what happens with the state and see what happens in the budget process and then make those adjustments prior to Town Meeting, if appropriate.”

At a subsequent School Committee meeting on Tuesday, Anguelov reiterated his concerns regarding the additional funding request for the Community School.

"As we've mentioned before, Community School employees are essential for the community, and they happen to be, in our opinion, some of the lowest paid employees that work for the town and school," Anguelov said. "So it is essential to keep those employees in place, and hopefully, with the support of the School Committee, we'll be able to get the increase in the appropriation that we've asked for."

Other expense increase requests for personnel and operations approved by the town administration and endorsed by the Select Board include:

The Select Board also unanimously agreed to include a $43.3 million sewer expansion project in the Somerset area on the warrant. Last month, the Board voted 3-2 to include the expansion on the warrant, then reconsidered their vote. But after a sewer master plan workshop last week, they reversed course again and opted to include the project on the warrant.

“I'm inclined to put it on,” Mohr said. “I think the problem with postponing it is we're just kicking the can down the road with other things.”

Fee worried that including the project could lead to voters rejecting it, or else rejecting something the Select Board finds equally, if not more important, such as the costly new Our Island Home proposal.

“I think we might overwhelm people,” Fee said. “People will pick and choose.”

But bringing sewer service to the area is part of the town’s master plan. The project would add more than 900 properties in the Somerset area to the sewer system, along with water main, drainage, and roadway improvements. It could also significantly reduce nitrogen pollution in the area. That was enough to gain the Select Board’s approval for inclusion on the warrant.

Disclosure: Nantucket Current editor Jason Graziadei is married to Nantucket Community School executive director Alicia Graziadei, who is quoted in this story.