Freetown-Lakeville School Committee Approves FY27 Budget, Rejects Double-Counting Claim

School Committee · Meeting of May 13, 2026

LAKEVILLE -- Freetown-Lakeville Regional School Committee approved its updated FY27 budget and cleared up a disputed assessment calculation at its May 13 meeting. The committee set the general fund at $49,551,387, voting 6-0-1 on the salary portion of $30,145,221 and unanimously on the non-salary portion of $19,406,166, with Tim Emery abstaining from the salary vote because a family member works in the district. Director of Finance Jack Higgins presented 10 years of side-by-side bank payment records to rebut a Lakeville town accountant's claim, made at a May 12 Select Board meeting, that the district had been double-counting capital debt, calling the statement "false" and tracing the discrepancy to Lakeville's use of a year-over-year increase figure rather than the total signed assessment.

Lakeville Town Administrator Andrew Sukforth sent a letter to Chair Melinda Richards the same day acknowledging no wrongdoing and promising a correction at a future meeting. The committee also voted to send a Chapter 70 advocacy letter to state legislators and received word of no less than $150,000 in state funding from Senator Rodericks earmarked for repair of the district's pool, with a formal vote to proceed expected at the June meeting.

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Source: the School Committee meeting of May 13, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.