SOUTHAMPTON — Town Meeting voters approved an $897,000 general override to cover unanticipated costs at Norris Elementary School on Tuesday night, a decision that will prevent the elimination of 10 full-time school positions if it passes at the Town Election on May 20.

With the Norris School override, the overall town budget for fiscal year 2026, also approved on Tuesday, comes to $24 million, an increase from the current year’s $21 million operating budget.

The $3 million increase is being driven by two major factors — a 16% spike in the school budget necessitated by unexpected special education costs, contractual salary increases and central office needs, and by an almost 20% increase in municipal health insurance costs. These added health insurance costs have affected communities statewide.

“I’m not going to lie, it was a difficult time getting to this,” Town Administrator Scott Szczebak said of the budget.

He described the final budget as “transparent,” “efficient” and “responsible” in the ways it consolidates costs, plans for the future and provides a detailed breakdown of costs for residents.

The town budget and Norris School override garnered passionate testimony from town educators and parents, and took up the bulk of the meeting. Norris School Committee Chair John Lumbra explained that without the override, the school would lose eight fill-time staff members and experience reductions in hours equivalent to the loss of another two full-time staff members. This would mean the loss of two classroom teachers, a specials teacher, a special education teacher, an interventionist and three support staff workers.

“These are not theoretical cuts,” he said, urging Town Meeting voters to approve the budget that is contingent on the override rather than the one excluding it.

Town resident Jennifer Johnson spoke about how her own child experienced benefits from special education in school, expanding his verbal capabilities quickly. Johnson said that the potential staffing reductions at the school would be a “drastic detriment” to the community.

School Committee member Margaret Larson also spoke about how the entire staff of the elementary school prepared her daughter for high school, college and her imminent graduation. She expressed concern that losing staff members would negatively impact not only students, but the livelihoods of the community members who would be without jobs.

“The stakes are incredibly high,” added Hampshire Regional School District Superintendent Vito Perrone.

He explained that the additional money presented by the override does not indicate “extravagant growth,” and emphasized that “it does not add, it protects.”

After a deal of confusion about the way the vote would be structured, voters decided against the budget excluding the override with 83 “yes” votes and 113 “no” votes. Even if this budget had been passed, voters would have then decided on the second budget including the override.

Voters ultimately passed the budget including the override with a majority voice vote. This means that if the override question fails on the ballot later this month, town officials will have to convene immediately to pull together a new budget, which will be brought before a special Town Meeting.

With this override-contingent budget, staffing levels at the Norris School will remain unchanged.

Tuesday night’s Town Meeting included 30 articles. After the budget article, voters approved other measures including borrowing $2 million to replace dated water mains on College Highway; updating town bylaws surrounding swimming pools; and transferring money for capital requests such as two replacement police cruisers.

These items passed with little contention, though there were several amendments made throughout the night to correct typos in the motions listed in the Town Meeting warrant.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.