HUDSON — The budget makers for Hudson Public Schools are working on tightening their belts in the process of planning the 2026 fiscal year budget, including an effort to cut $1 million from the current deficit of $4.4 million.
At the Nov. 19 School Committee meeting, Superintendent Brian Reagan said there continues to be meetings between leadership and department heads at the schools.
“We are positioning ourselves for the community to be feeling good about considering an override vote in the spring,” said Reagan. “So we have committed that to the community.”
He noted that Finance Director Dan Gale and his team are working on five-year projection for the budget. They are also “working to finalize the reduction plan in December with a number.”
He said there may even be a number for the full-time equivalent staff positions a budget reduction might end up impacting. And, to that effect, he said there needs to be continued communication with folks into January about the issue.
Reagan said, “I spoke with [Executive Assistant] Tom Gregory today about this timeline.”
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The process to handle the budget is slow, he said, but communicating properly about it is important.
He said, “It’s coming, and we’ll continue to work on that now.”
He said that every department in town is stretched right now in terms of resources, and the goal is to be honest with the community about the financial reality and have an ask that is not too large.
Chair Steven Smith said the committee needs to ask what it can do in the long term to mitigate the budget deficit, such as consolidation of how the school resources are used.
Reagan said one of the items they hope will be considered at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting would be space needs study. It would be done by an outside vendor who could come in and examine a consolidation plan or even a redistricting plan by looking at the buildings owned by the school district.
“We don’t have the capacity internally to do that study,” he said.
He said that they have good questions about how to use Hudson Public Schools’ assets, but not any answers just yet. Along with the bus parking situation that is one of the priorities for the schools, as he has told Gregory in discussions about the School Department budget.
Other news
In his report, Reagan noted that 29 students were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society in the Joseph L. Mulready Chapter and 23 were inducted into the National Honor Society in the William D. Coolidge Chapter. Of those 23 students, 22 students from the Class of 2026 transitioned from the National Junior Honor Society to the NHS.
He said, “Congratulations to all of the students.”
