The Town of Norwood Finance Committee voted on March 27 to approve key components of the FY26 operating budget and related spending plans, including the general government total, the school budget, shared costs and Community Preservation Committee (CPC) project recommendations.

Committee members approved the general government total of $43,187,399, the school budget of $65,292,117 and a shared-costs package totaling $46,901,808. The Finance Committee also voted to add $1,050,730 to CPC reserve accounts and approved a slate of CPC project appropriations totaling $748,000, all by recorded roll call votes.

The budget approvals were taken by category: committee members voted on the category-level line items that feed the townwide bottom line (salaries, operating and capital lines inside each category) and then confirmed the aggregated totals that will go forward on the warrant. Votes on the individual categories (general government and its internal accounts, public safety, facilities, health and human services, culture and recreation and the school budget) were presented from the budget packet and polled separately; the meeting record shows unanimous approvals on those items.

Jeff O'Neil, who supplied the budget documents and the Section 1 budget book, answered technical questions about line-item totals and confirmed the versions in the meeting packet. Theresa Stewart attended to represent the School Committee during the school-budget vote. The CPC presentation (Kristen Phelps was identified as the committee contact) outlined projected FY26 CPC receipts of $909,627 and an estimated state match of about $141,000; the CPC recommended $748,000 in project spending while leaving positive balances in each CPA account.

Votes "at a glance" in the meeting record include approval of minutes from March 20, 2025, the general government total ($43,187,399), the school total ($65,292,117), the shared-costs total ($46,901,808), and CPC reserve and project appropriations. The committee also polled and approved the constituent category subtotals that comprise the town total; those individual category votes were announced and recorded during the meeting.

The committee discussed health-insurance enrollment and noted that open enrollment results will provide firmer numbers by July 1, with any necessary mid-year adjustments addressed during FY26. Jeff O'Neil told the committee, "we're gonna go with that number" for the health-insurance line after reviewing participation across the enterprise funds and departments. The Committee also reviewed the budget book and asked staff to ensure the packet contains the most recent March 18/03/05 budget summary pages used to produce the totals.

The votes were taken by roll call and recorded as unanimous for the listed items; the meeting minutes show the chair casting the final vote in each roll call. The Finance Committee closed the operating-budget portion of the meeting after confirming that the packet matched the numbers approved during February–March budget reviews.

The committee then moved on to discussion of special town-meeting warrant articles and other business (separately reported).