Hull School Committee Approves 3% Budget Ask, Sets March 23 Advisory Meeting

HULL — March 9, 2026 — Hull School Committee backs a 3-percent FY27 budget increase and rejects regionalization talk. Business Administrator Diane presented a follow-up budget slideshow at the March 9 meeting, highlighting a near-doubling of circuit breaker special education reimbursement — from $394,000 in FY26 to just over $699,000 in FY27 — which drives a 4.52-percent drop in overall expenses even as salaries rise 5.29 percent. Hull's education spending sits at 35.85 percent of general fund expenditures, well below neighbors such as Hingham at 51.54 percent and Cohasset at 46.39 percent; Cohasset, by contrast, faces a gap between its 8.8-percent budget ask and the 3.5 percent the town says it can provide. The committee chair flatly dismissed recent Select Board-meeting suggestions of school regionalization, saying the district "is not in any sort of a need of a life raft," and the superintendent confirmed no formal dialogue with any neighboring district has taken place. The budget goes next to the Advisory Committee in a joint session at town hall on March 23 at 7 p.m.