WESTFORD — The Select Board met last Tuesday, where they discussed a request from the School Committee to change the month and day of Westford’s annual town meeting.
During the meeting, School Committee President Kathryn Clear said she is in favor of changing the date of annual town meeting because the Westford Public Schools’ budget for the next fiscal year is presented during first week of December.
Clear said that during this time, many families are away for the holidays, and the School Committee is finding that they are coming back to meet in January with last minute feedback from members of the public on the budget. Clear also said the School Committee believes that it would be more effective to have more time before annual town meeting, for members of the public to give their input during public hearings on the school budget.
“This year at our budget hearing, which was held on Dec. 5, we had nobody at all turn up for a public comment or conversation,” Clear said. “We ended up in a large dialogue actually, as a committee, speaking about the timing of the budget process for us, and actually having meaningful engagement. What often happens is, the budget comes out in December, families and school staff are all in the thick of December shows, festivities and all of that. So we don’t really get any meaningful engagement or feedback on the budget throughout December. Then we come back in early January, and it’s probably about a week or two into January, before we start to get any sort of feedback and it’s often last minute.”
As the current time frame stands, the Committee believes there is too little time for public input on the budget before it needs to be approved ahead of annual town meeting.
In addition to the School Committee’s public hearing on changing the annual town meeting date, the Select Board also held a public hearing about a liquor license conversion for JJ’s place, to allow for their current wine and malt beverage license to be converted all alcohol license, which they approved with a five to zero vote.
The Select Board later approved a request from the Board of Registrars to authorize in-person early voting for the May 5 annual town election, and approved a vote prepared by the Bond Counsel about the town’s old firetrucks and need for new ones, which was discussed during the 2025 special town meeting last fall. Both items were approved on a five to zero vote.
Later in the meeting, the heard a request from the Permanent Town Building Committee to appoint Meghan O’Connell as an alternate member for a term to expire June 30, 2027.
The vote passed on a four to one vote, with board member Noelle Donovan being the sole vote against the approval of O’Connell.
