SUNDERLAND — Residents approved all 20 articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant on Friday, including a $10.56 million operating budget for fiscal year 2026 and a citizen’s petition to create a land acknowledgment.

Eighty-eight residents convened at Sunderland Elementary School where they unanimously approved the operating budget, which represents a 3.9%, or $489,077, increase over the current fiscal year’s numbers. When factoring in the Wastewater Treatment Plant budget, which is funded by user fees, the total budget is brought to $10.99 million.

“It was definitely a difficult budget cycle,” Selectboard Chair Nathaniel Waring said. “Two things that were difficult for us as we went through was health insurance. We’re not alone; many towns and municipalities are facing really steep increases in health insurance. … Then the Frontier budget, it only increased 2.5% over a year, however the Sunderland assessment was up about 9%.”

Waring explained the town assessments from the school district are calculated using formulas and state Chapter 70 guidelines, but are largely guided by enrollment.

“A lot of it really comes down to we’re educating more kids, which is good,” he said.

Questions on the budget were minimal, with residents only seeking clarification on the Frontier budget for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing. Frontier Regional Superintendent Darius Modestow clarified that while passing the MCAS is no longer a requirement to graduate, the state still requires that students take the exam.

Residents also asked about the presentation of the budget itself, as the handout given to attendees included the incorrect percent changes on the budget lines. Town Administrator Becky Torres said the dollar amounts were correct, however, due to a software error, the percents were wrong. Torres will update the document and post a corrected version on the town website.

Other articles that sparked discussion among residents included Article 13, a non-binding citizen’s petition to adopt a land acknowledgment recognizing the ancestral homeland and territory of the Pocumtuck, Nipmuc and Abenaki people. The acknowledgment will be posted on the Sunderland town website and be read at the start of Annual Town Meetings as well as other community events.

Aaron Falbel, a member of the Sunderland Human Rights Task Force that brought the petition article forward, said the language was crafted with help from the Nolumbeka Project, an Indigenous history and culture preservation nonprofit, and was designed to encourage residents to reflect on the Indigenous history of the town, as well as its future.

“This was done in collaboration with the Indigenous people who live here, and they felt strongly that acknowledgment is important to do, but if ended there, what good is it?” Falbel noted. “We encourage each person, each Sunderland resident, to think about the meaning of the acknowledgment and what steps they could possibly take. … There’s no hidden agenda, there’s no secretive actions we’re trying to slip under the rug here. It’s just an exhortation for people to think about the meaning of history and how we might act on it.”

Resident Will Sillin said he appreciated the task force’s efforts, but he disagreed with the statement and why it was being presented to voters as a non-binding article.

“There’s nothing to stop the Selectboard from making this land acknowledgment part of the Town Meeting now,” Sillin said. “What’s preventing you from doing it now and is there an opportunity to revise it in the future?”

Waring said the Selectboard felt a land acknowledgment is something residents should have a say in, and that it would be inappropriate for the board to implement one without a town vote. The decision to present it as a non-binding article was made under guidance from town counsel. Making it a non-binding article rather than binding was not a matter of making it non-enforceable, but was so the article did not have to go to the Attorney General’s Office for final approval, as most Town Meeting articles do.

Approval of the non-binding land acknowledgment just provides the town with language to be posted to the town website and read at Town Meetings, and to be recited at meetings of the various boards and committees, if they so choose, Waring said.

He added that revisions could be brought to the Town Meeting floor if residents felt it necessary. The article passed by majority vote, with no revisions proposed.

Other articles that passed included:

■A citizen’s petition with a resolution recommending a freeze of nuclear weapons.

■Appropriating $472,173 in Community Preservation Act funds for the restoration of the masonry, foundation and site at the Graves Memorial Library at 111 North Main St.

■And closing the existing Recreation Recycling Account to create two new accounts regarding programming and field use, as well as a one-time transfer of $100,000 in free cash to the Recreation Department’s budget.