Wilbraham’s Annual Town Meeting begins at Minnechaug Regional High School.
Reminder Publishing photo by Peter Tuohy
WILBRAHAM — Wilbraham’s Annual Town Meeting is officially in the rearview, but it didn’t leave before sparking conversation and debate amongst residents on multiple articles, including the town’s fiscal year 2027 budget and multiple school projects.
Wilbraham residents voted to pass every warrant article besides the final article for a public shade tree bylaw on May 11.
There was a heavy pour of conversation for system upgrades to Memorial School and perimeter fencing around play spaces at Soule Road Elementary School. Article 19 looked at approving the FY27 budget of $57.1 million, which passed after a presentation by Finance Committee Chair Todd Schneider and resident discussion.
Schneider said that the town is in a good financial position and that it continues to spend around $1 million below the levy limit.
He added that the challenges of this year began with funding for Memorial School, and that it would cost the town “80% more next year to keep Memorial at the current state because of the increased cost of heat and electricity.”
He discussed the budget challenges for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, which did a deep study into the budget and was able to cut $2.2 million, bringing the school assessment budget in Wilbraham to $31.7 million. Hampden’s assessment was $9.4 million, which passed in its Town Meeting as well.
The presentation closed with anticipated impacts to FY28, including over $10 million on schedule for HWRSD capital improvements, an increase of over $3 million in capital improvements for town needs, a pension increase of $300,000 and $200,000 group insurance.
Schneider said that future increases of pension and insurance will cause more challenges to the budget for both the town and the schools.
Superintendent John Provost said that the budget process was a real challenge for districts and municipalities this year, with many communities seeing increases of up to 20%. He said the core HWRSD budget increased 4.58% and that offsets and income are projected to increase at a faster rate, which will bring down the assessed amount.
“Like many districts, we’re feeling the squeeze this year,” Provost said. “This budget includes reductions through both layoffs and attrition. It includes fee increases and reductions in transportation services. I think it’s fair to say it’s not the budget that anyone on the school side hoped to bring you this year. It is, however, a budget that we hope will be within the reach of the voters, for the two communities … in short, it’s a budget that allows us to continue to provide varied and high quality learning experiences for our young people.”
School Committee member Tim Collins has expressed his disapproval of any reductions throughout the budget process, and made the room aware of his decision to vote no on the budget during discussion. He said he was proud of the work his colleagues have done, but that he had to vote against it.
“For the last two years, I’ve watched us shave away at services for the children in our school, and I can’t, in good conscience, vote for a school budget that’s gonna take us in the wrong direction,” Collins said. “The growth, academically, of our students continues to increase. That’s an amazing accomplishment. I don’t know how you keep it up when we’re going to be cutting the teacher leaders, who help train and facilitate the collaborative efforts to implement our strategic plan.”
Collins added that cities like Springfield and Holyoke have seen increases of 30% in state revenue, while Wilbraham has only seen 8%. He said it isn’t fair or equitable and that a child in Hampden and Wilbraham deserve the same kind of treatment.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy said he didn’t agree with Collins, but that it is very difficult to put a budget together that is responsible for the taxpayers and that the best has been done to make cuts fair to everybody and as painless as possible.
“I think we’ve done as good a job as we could do,” Kennedy said. “This has been a very long, ongoing process.”
Community Preservation Act projects covered in Articles 29-32 sparked many residents to speak up, bringing long conversation to proposed improvements at McLaughlin Softball Field, Memorial School and Soule Road Elementary.
Article 21 planned on using $75,119 on a sander truck for Minnechaug Regional High School, with Hampden’s portion being $34,652. The current truck is over 20 years old and Provost said that rust falls off of it every time a door is opened and that it would not pass inspection come July. The article did pass in Wilbraham, but failed in Hampden.
Article 29 looked to add dugouts and outfield fencing to the softball field, which did pass. Resident Kerryn Perkins called out the Finance Committee and said it was “bogus” that three members of the committee didn’t vote in favor of the article.
“They don’t matter in this, we do,” Perkins said. “If you could vote this one through for our little girls, so that they feel just as equal to everybody else.”
Article 30 for perimeter fencing around Soule Road Elementary play spaces passed with a majority vote, but resident Karen Romano called out the Finance Committee as well, stating “if we want to talk about bogus, let’s talk about a 6-3 no vote on school fencing.”
Finance Committee member Patrick Kiernan was one of the no votes and said that the building, which sits adjacent to a main road, has already been there for a substantial period of time with no fence.
Romano said the concept of “we haven’t had an issue yet” is very short sighted and that the idea of it not being an appropriate use of funds is wrong. She said she had spoken with the principal and that there have been five instances of escaping so far this year.
Resident Melina Fortin also supported the article and added that she is the parent of a child who “thinks fast, but moves faster,” and that the distance from the playground to the road is not far.
Article 32 looked to spend $450,000 on a heating system replacement and system upgrades at Memorial School, which the Finance Committee unanimously did not recommend. The article passed by majority but brought one of the biggest discussion portions of the night.
Resident John Hegarty said that the school needed to continue as is for the time being, even if a decision had not been made for the school’s future. He said if the boiler is shut down, all of the programs currently happening will be cut off.
“The kids are there playing basketball, they have indoor pickleball, they have wrestling, there are classes held there for kids,” Hegarty said. “I think we realy need to just spend the money, get that boiler fixed, and if the building for some reason is sold in the future, at least the boiler will be fixed, then that won’t be an added expenditure.”
Building Utilization Committee Chair Jeff Smith urged the article to be passed and said that the Finance Committee hasn’t had a solid position on the disposition or use of the property. He added that capital expenditures at the school have been kicked down the road for a decade now and the building is a historical asset.
Finance Committee member Xiomara DeLobato said she supported the committee’s recommendation. She said the building would bring more costs in the future and this article was something that didn’t resonate as a necessary expense, adding that she would like investments going into other schools or “buckets that are necessary for our municipality to function.”
Wilbraham now looks toward the annual town election at Minnechaug on May 16. Polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
