Harvard’s fiscal year 2027 budget process isn’t over. The Select Board still has decisions to make before it closes this year’s Town Meeting warrant on March 17, and voters will have the final word on any override at the May 5 Town Election. But whatever number the board settles on, this year’s process deserves recognition—not just for the result, but for how it was achieved.
A projected deficit of $1.6 million last July has been reduced to somewhere between $85,000 and $396,754, without deep cuts to staff or services. Some of that reflects good fortune: school enrollment changes freed up positions and money the district had budgeted but no longer needed, and health insurance premiums increased by a smaller-than-expected 6.34%—far below the 15% increase assumed at the outset.
The more durable achievement is the process itself. In past years, the Finance Committee and Select Board have sometimes operated on parallel tracks, with the board receiving recommendations late and reacting under pressure. This year was different. The Select Board made collaboration an explicit goal at its June 2025 strategy meeeting—and delivered on it. An all-boards meeting in the fall gave departments and committees an opportunity to share goals and financial requests. Town Administrator Dan Nason, Finance Director Jared Mullane, and school administrators reviewed budgets before submission to FinCom, and once drafts were in hand, a meeting of the Select Board, Finance Committee, and School Committee built consensus.
The Select Board was engaged throughout, attending Finance Committee sessions and asking hard questions of department heads. When FinCom voted its recommendations in February, the board convened its own three-hour budget retreat to work through each item on its merits, developing its own priorities, and identifying cuts FinCom had missed.
Nason, Mullane, Finance Committee Chair Mike Derse, the School Committee, school administrators, and department heads all deserve credit for a process more transparent and collaborative than Harvard has seen in recent memory. Board Chair Kara Minar put it well: “It did take a village to get through all of this.”
The structural challenges that made this year’s budget difficult have not gone away. Harvard has limited new growth to absorb rising costs. Some savings—including the school enrollment adjustments—are one-time reductions unlikely to be repeated. Health insurance increases will not stay at 6.34% forever.
None of this diminishes what the town’s employees and volunteer committee members accomplished. A collaborative process that engaged all parties early, kept the public informed, and arrived at defensible decisions is something Harvard can be proud of. The Select Board has committed to a review of the pilot process by June 2026. The challenge now is to build on it.