Carver School Committee Unanimously Approves $26.2 Million FY27 Budget

CARVER — March 23, 2026 — Carver School Committee unanimously approves $26.2 million school budget for FY27 with no layoffs. The committee voted 5-0 Monday to send a $26,237,431 appropriation — a 3.3 percent increase over the current year — to Town Meeting on April 7 at Carver Middle High School. Budget consultant Ron Mills told the committee the plan eliminates 3.6 positions through attrition and retirements rather than cuts, adds a half-time music teacher, a half-time TV studio position, a new bus driver, and a special education educational support professional, and relies on less than $50,000 in one-time funds to close the remaining gap. The committee also heard a detailed presentation from Deputy Chief Jesse Hoyle of the Carver Fire Department and SRO Jeremy Fockerson on the district's ALICE active-threat protocols — in place since 2012 — including a new coordinate-grid mapping contract with a firm called CRG to help mutual-aid responders navigate both school buildings. In a separate 4-1 vote, committee member Bill Cullum was appointed to a Select Board-convened Capital Funding Internal Working Group formed after the town had to bond school capital projects, including a bus purchase and weight room renovation, that ordinarily would be covered by annual capital appropriations.