Budget
Harvard Public Schools Budgeting Process
Budget Planning for School Year 2026-2027
The Harvard Public Schools annual budget request for FY26 strives to align our financial expenditures with our Vision Statement, District Improvement Plan, and School Improvement Plans. These foundational documents chart our course towards sustained progress and excellence in education. Our commitment to this strategic approach has positioned our district as a high-performing school system, consistently attracting families seeking top-tier education for their children.
The School Department’s budgeting process beings at the start of each school year. Teachers actively participate by submitting their needs for curriculum materials and supplies, fostering a collaborative environment within departments and grades. School Principals review and align the funding decisions with their School Improvement plans and then present these school based budgets to the Superintendent. Other key cost center managers, such as those overseeing facilities, pupil services, and technology, contribute their expertise along stakeholder input to present their budgets to the Superintendent. The resulting budgets are then further refined through a series of reviews with the Superintendent, School Finance Director and the School Commmittee Budget Sub-committee in public meetings open to all community members.
On December 8, 2025, the Superintendent presented the FY27 Budget to the School Committee meeting with all cost center managers present to answer questions. The School Committee then voted on December 15, 2025 to approve the Superintendent’s recommended FY27 Budget. You can find video of the meeting by clicking this link.
The FY27 Preliminary Budget Book and Budget Spreadsheet detailing each cost center’s request with an overall increase of 1.56% were sent to the Town Hall and Finance Committee for review.
On January 12, the School Committee presented the FY27 School Budget to the Select Board and the Finance Committee during a joint public meeting. You can find a copy of the presentation slides by clicking this link. The presentation centered around questions that the Select Board and the Finance Committee had previously submitted to the School Committee. You can find a copy of this year and previous years’ questions and answers below.
On March 17, 2026, the Select Board met and made their final decision on supporting an override for both the Town and the Schools. The school was given a final number of $16,764,074 which is a 1.02% increase from last year. This was adjusted from an anticipated 0% increase due to rising health care costs. Health care insurance premium increases came in slightly lower than anticipated and so the school’s allocation of funds was increased. The Select Board also asked the school to make some adjustments to our final override number. Based on a memo detailing the likely loss of Title 1 funds in Harvard for the 2026-2027 school year, the Select Board voted to add the value of those anticipated funds to the General Fund Budget as it could no longer be counted on as an offset. They also asked the school to adjust a salary line based on a recently known personnel change for next year. Funds for needed school supplies are also included in the override. After holding a budget hearing on March 9, 2026, the School Committee approved a final General Fund Budget of $16,836,642 with a vote on March 23, 2026. The Harvard Public Schools are now asking for a 1.46% increase over last year’s budget in order to continue best serving our students in Harvard and Devens.
FY27 Budget Book-School Committee Approved
FY27 Budget Spreadsheet-Preliminary
FinCom & Select Board Questions
FY24 Questions and Answers and Follow Up Questions
Current Budget:
Previous Fiscal Year Budgets:
FY25 Budget Hearing (video)
FY25 School Budget Spreadsheet
Previous Superintendent’s State of the School Address:
State of the Schools Presentation3/27/24.pdf
State of the Schools Superintendent's Address 3/27/24 (video)