Dartmouth Finance Committee Hears Voc-Tech Budget Update, $2M Health Insurance Savings Plan

DARTMOUTH -- March 19, 2026, Dartmouth Finance Committee hears of $1.6 million school gap and a $2 million health insurance savings opportunity. Town Administrator Cody Haddad told the committee Thursday that the town faces a roughly $1.6 million shortfall between the School Department's full budget request, approximately a 6.9 percent increase, and available funding, with no clear path to closing the full gap before Town Meeting. On a brighter note, Haddad described a proposed switch from the town's current health insurance provider to the Southeastern Mass Health Group, a regional consortium of about 10 communities, which he said could save the town and its employees a combined $2 million annually, with individual employees on a family plan potentially saving $11,400 per year; the plan requires approval from all 11 bargaining units by April 1. The town also locked in a new three-year natural gas contract with NRG two days before recent market price spikes, limiting the annual cost increase to roughly $10,000 against anticipated potential increases of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School Superintendent Mike Watson separately presented the district's FY27 assessment methodology, noting Dartmouth's enrollment has fallen to 284 students, its lowest in five years, due in part to a new statewide randomized lottery system, and outlined plans to grow the school from roughly 2,150 to 2,400 students by decade's end.