PETERSHAM – With very little discussion, the 120 voters who showed up for Petersham’s Annual Town Meeting Monday evening unanimously approved a FY26 town operating budget of $1,979,739.

As explained in the report of the Petersham Advisory Finance Committee – which was distributed to voters along with a copy of the 45-article warrant – this represents an increase of $101,641, or 5.41%, over the current year’s budget.

“With budget tightening, the satisfaction of the Petersham Center School construction loan this year, and some additional state revenues,” said FinCom Chair Richard Cavanaugh, “the town has been able to absorb some significant increases in costs, such as landscaping for the common and the cemeteries, and meeting its county retirement obligations, while also partially restoring town administrative staffing and providing cost of living increases for town employees, along with modest increases for selected positions.”

Due to commitments to use much of the town’s free cash – which were approved at a Special Town Meeting earlier this year – and the need to set aside $30,000 in free cash in order to respond to unforeseen emergencies, Cavanaugh said, “The town is unable to fund any capital improvements.”

Voters also approved Petersham’s assessment of $872,182 as the town’s share of the Mahar Regional School District FY26 budget. That figure represents a decrease of more than $82,000 from the town’s assessment for the current fiscal year, a drop of 8.6%.

“I’d like somebody from the Mahar Regional School district to explain how they reduced their budget by so much in this time of fiscal constraint,” said resident Ann Lewis.

District Superintendent Michele Tontodonato, who had just arrived from the Town Meeting in New Salem, responded, “We started at about a 6% increase. We got it down to 4%. We did that a number of ways, we did cut a number of things. I changed curriculum purchased from three years to one year. The (teachers) association really wanted the librarian back; we tried to add that in, but I had to take that back out.

“What it came down to, the majority of it,” she continued, “was the elimination of 5.5 positions; a .5 from central office, two non-teaching positions and three teaching positions. It was a hard cut, but that’s where we’re at.”

Tontodonato also credited the Mahar Teachers Association for helping to defray some of the district’s costs.

Lewis then asked which teachings positions were cut in the budget-making process. Tontodonato said they included a data analyst coach, a world language instructor, an English teacher, and a math teacher.

Without discussion, voters also approved a $2.2 million budget for the Petersham Center School and $129,000 as Petersham’s assessment for the Montachusett Regional Technical Vocational School District.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.