Whitman Finance Committee Tables School Busing Cut, Sets April 22 Return Date

WHITMAN -- April 14, 2026, Whitman Finance Committee tables $235,000 non-mandated busing cut and splits over town clerk salary freeze. Meeting in the Board of Selectmen's room to accommodate a crowd of school officials and parents, the seven-member panel voted unanimously to reduce the assistant town administrator salary line from $105,968 to $100,000, aligning it with the top of the posted salary range, and voted 4-3 to hold the town clerk's salary flat at its fiscal year 2026 level of $80,407, with Chair Rosemary Hannigan citing the clerk's decision to close the office on Thursdays. Interim Superintendent John Marcus told the committee that cutting the $235,000 non-mandated busing line would not save the town $235,000, the 60-40 enrollment split means the district would have to absorb $383,000 in operating cuts, and estimated new crossing-guard costs alone at roughly $100,000. Hannigan argued that the 1992 regional agreement requires busing costs to be apportioned as a single operating expense, and that recalculating under that method would shift approximately $59,000 of the cost from Whitman to Hanson without cutting any service. With free cash projected at roughly $35,300 after all capital articles and a reserve fund at $17,000 against $19,000 in pending requests, the committee adjourned without a balanced budget recommendation and will reconvene April 22.