SOUTH HADLEY — The Select Board is reluctantly supporting a $58 million budget that will be presented at annual Town Meeting this spring, with members acknowledging that the spending plan for next fiscal year does not meet the needs of residents.

The budget would mean the loss of 17 positions townwide, including 15 in the school system.

Select Board members were in a quandary at their meeting Tuesday as they contemplated recommending a budget to Town Meeting that they all agree underfunds both the town and schools.

“I understand the work that’s gone in, and I personally don’t feel confident and comfortable in voting to approve the budget today,” Select Board member Nicole Casolari said. “Continuing to push forward a budget that doesn’t meet the needs of our residents just doesn’t stay right with me, and I feel that I can’t do it in good faith.”

While other board members agreed with Casolari, Andrea Miles said that voting down the budget at Town Meeting would only inhibit municipal staff’s ability to be paid. Town Administrator Lisa Wong said that Town Meeting looks to the Select Board vote for leadership, and budget support is key to that effort.

“I agree with you that, as a moral document, I do not support the budgets that doesn’t meet the needs of residents,” Miles said, “but also we can’t meet the needs because the money doesn’t exist in the way that we want it to.”

The board eventually agreed to support the fiscal 2026 budget by a 4-1 vote, with Casolari voting against.

Next year’s budget is about $1.66 million, or 2.95%, higher than the current year’s budget, with the School Department getting about $25.7 million of the $58 million total.

The town is poised to lose two positions, though further cuts in programs and staff may occur if federal and state grants are revoked. Wong said the Police Department’s body-worn camera program and Department of Mental Health Service grants for training responders on crisis calls may disappear.

Task force created

Knowing that the financial woes will continue into the future, the Select Board also voted unanimously Tuesday to create a budget task force to review town services and finances to recommend path forward.

“A budget task force will provide that space for critical, comprehensive, cross-cutting review of town services,” Wong told the board. “It allows us to make recommendations that go beyond sort of the typical staff recommendations for this (budget) cycle next year.”

The task force will consist of between seven and nine people, with a representative from the Select Board, School Committee, Capital Planning Committee and Appropriations Committee. In addition to analyzing the town’s future financial needs and what the impact of a potential Proposition 2½ general budget override would mean, Wong said that the committee will look at untapped funding sources.

“So there’s all the budget concerns that we have for this budget cycle, but in order to complete this task in an effective way, we need more time, and so that’s why it’s (the budget task force) going to be for fiscal year 27,” Miles said.

The task force will also hold a “State of the Town” summit in January 2026 to announce its findings, present the results of a community needs assessment and factor in the governor’s budget for fiscal 2027. Particularly, the group will make a recommendation on the need for a Proposition 2½ override.

Interim Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said the district may find itself in a larger financial hole for fiscal year 2027 if the Trump administration decides to discontinue programs such as federal title grants and special education funding, medical reimbursement via Medicare and Medicaid, and school lunches.

Wong echoed that thought.

“It’s hard to think of our budget challenges without thinking about the context of the trickle-down effect of the federal and state funding and policy impacts on local government,” she said. “There are some assumptions and reliable funding sources and policies and things like Department of Education, that we have come to rely on or learn their policies and regulations and compliance, and those things are changing.”

The School Committee on Thursday is expected to discuss and possibly vote on recommending next year’s budget. Town Meeting is scheduled for May 14.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.