Overview:
Voters narrowly approved a $26.9 million Narragansett Regional School District budget by a 10-vote margin on Monday. Despite the passage of the $27 million spending plan, the district faces significant staff cuts and reductions in classroom supplies. The decision followed heated debate regarding town assessments and potential impacts on municipal services.
TEMPLETON – On Monday, 575 voters – 440 from Templeton and 135 from Phillipston – crowded into Safka Auditorium at Narragansett Middle School to weigh in on a proposed Narragansett Regional School District budget of $26,987,139.
Scheduled to get underway at 6 p.m., long lines and confusion over electronic voting devices that are given to each voter delayed the start by nearly an hour. In the end, voters approved the spending plan by only 10 votes, 277 to 267.
Even with passage of a $26.9 million budget, the district is faced with significant staff cuts. These include a physical education teacher, four paraprofessionals, a Spanish teacher, one math teacher, one custodian, a registrar in the central office, an assistant superintendent, one principal, and several special program paraprofessionals. There will also be cuts to classroom supplies and district software.
The high school principal had taken a new job, and the high school and middle school principal roles were merged.
Last fiscal year’s budget was just under $25.3 million.
“Where we fail is affordability.”
John Valentine
The vote came following more than an hour of discussion, which included three motions to amend the amount, all of which were debated and defeated.
The district meeting was called after Phillipston voters initially approved an assessment for the district of $2.1 million at its May 7 Annual Town Meeting, less than the $2.3 million which the district proposed. This led to a Special Town Election on June 30 requesting a $208,000 Proposition 2 ½ override to cover the rest, which was defeated.
Templeton voters had approved the town’s share of the school budget, just over $9.9 million, at May’s Annual Town Meeting.
With final passage of the FY27 school budget, Phillipston will now be responsible for an assessment of $2.3 million.
Despite Templeton’s approval of its assessment, most of those who spoke against passage of the $27 million budget were Templeton residents.
“Where we fail is affordability,” said John Valentine. “This is a 13 1/2% increase in each town’s assessment. This is a low- and moderate-income town. We can’t sustain this large, large budget. Of course, we want the best for our schoolchildren, but we also want police, fire, first responders who actually save lives. No one wins here tonight. That’s the situation we’re in.”
“I’m very sad the school was not able to come up with a lower amount for a budget,” said Baldwinville resident Mary Ehnstrom. “If this budget goes through, the town is going to be devastated in other places. We’ve got to look at the other side of the coin. If Narragansett gets this budget, there are other things that are going to get cut, and one of them is transportation for the Senior Center. We’re not talking about rides to go shopping, we’re talking about life-giving rides; rides to chemotherapy treatment, rides to radiation treatment. I will not give up a ride to radiation to save a scholarship. I want to live.”
Ruth French of Phillipston made a motion to amend the amount of the proposed budget to just over $26 million. She said the figure represented a 3% increase in the towns’ assessments from FY26.
French was asked by a Templeton resident what that amount would mean in terms of cuts to the school system and the impact on the overall town budget. French responded she couldn’t speak to specifics but added, “It would not be enough to save some of the significant services.”
The motion was defeated, as were two other motions to decrease the proposed budget, for $25.7 million and $25.8 million.