January 28, 2026 By Carol Britton Meyer
Hingham Public Schools leadership presented a proposed FY27 school operating budget at Monday’s school committee meeting, outlining a plan shaped by rising fixed costs, increased student needs, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the town that caps the budget at 3.5% annual growth. The meeting was held on Zoom due to the snowstorm.
The FY27 proposed operating budget – representing a 3.5% increase per the MOU – is $72,847,183. The FY2026 operating budget was set at $70,373,752.
Superintendent Kathryn Roberts shared that the district “aspired to approach level services while working within the constraints of the 3.5% MOU.” She noted that the leadership team “used every lever available to maximize available funds in order to make progress on district initiatives and to ensure that student needs are met.”
Go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_QLc1h6NFk97b9iishxxdsF4y9TZChJI/view for the full budget presentation.
During the budget planning process, the HPS leadership team identified key budget priorities for FY27, including aligning resources and program offerings to support the Portrait of a Learner initiative and the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan.
“The district prioritized MTSS (Multi-tiered System of Supports) structures and staffing and improvements to Student Services and special education as key priorities,” Roberts told the Hingham Anchor in response to a follow-up email. Facilities also remain an area of budgetary focus.
Roberts explained that for the current 2025-2026 school year, the district raised a number of fees in order to close the FY26 budget gap, including higher athletics fees and parking fees and implementation of a new Gr. 7-12 transportation fee.
“We maxed out fees in FY26 and need to consider other budget levers to close the gap for FY27,” she said.
Roberts also noted that the district is one of only 15 in Massachusetts — including South Shore peer districts Duxbury, Cohasset, Hanover, and Braintree – that continue to charge tuition for full-day kindergarten.
“For FY27, the district took advantage of efficiencies, such as retirements and leaves, and benefited from reduced energy costs due to the geothermal and solar infrastructure at the new Foster School and the acquisition of new energy efficient solar buses,” she said.
The district also proposed “digging deep” into revolving funds to close the FY27 budget gap. School Committee Chair Jen Benham emphasized that the district revolving funds, similar to reserve funds, are one-time dollars that can buy time, but they do not provide long-term sustainability.
While the district was able to avoid a reduction of force for student-facing positions for FY27, Roberts noted that over the past 3 years, 26.2 secondary general education positions have been reduced due to the lean budget years.
“We continue to monitor enrollment and average class sizes, and will use the recent New England School Development Council (NESDEC) enrollment study projections for both near-term and longer-term planning,” she said. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_UdevlAhzGRBHorrjbtZLzqm_d62rJ7k/view).
“A recent NESDEC enrollment study commissioned by HPS predicts a net increase of 117 students for K-12 HPS enrollment over the next three years, and a net increase of 417 students over the next 10 years,” Roberts explained.
The presentation concluded with an overview of planned reductions, continued use of fees, grants and revolving funds, and the acknowledgement that future budgets will require difficult trade-offs as reserve funds are drawn down and long-term funding challenges continue.
All FY27 school budget materials — including meeting recordings, slide presentations, and the calendar of upcoming budget meetings – can be found on the HPS budget webpage at
https://www.hinghamschools.org/page/budget-documents/