At their April 7 meeting, the Duxbury Selectboard laid out a set of priorities for the year ahead. Two of their stated goals immediately jumped off the page for me:

1. Addressing our town’s structural deficit through long-term budgeting and open discussion with the community about revenues and expenditures.
2. Preparing an article to move the Annual Town Meeting from March to May, starting in 2027.

The second goal might seem procedural or minor at first glance—but it’s not. In fact, it may be one of the most impactful changes we could make to help accomplish the first.

Selectboard member Fernando Guitart explained the reasoning behind the proposed date change: moving the meeting to May would allow more time and space for meaningful budget development. It would give the school administration, the town’s finance director, and other key leaders the breathing room to do the kind of planning, forecasting, and public dialog the process really demands.

I completely agree with this proposal. And I’d like to add to the argument by zooming in on just how important this would be for our schools.

There are certain immovable parts of the public education calendar that don’t care when our town meeting is scheduled.

The fiscal year ends June 30, which means the summer months are already spoken for—used to close the books on the outgoing year, hire and onboard staff, and prep for the year ahead. There’s no time to spare.

Then comes late August and early September—the start of school. This is when the real crunch hits. Every school leader, teacher, and administrator is working flat-out to welcome students, get classrooms running smoothly, and make sure the academic year launches without a hitch. It’s all hands on deck. Arguably the busiest and most demanding stretch of the entire year.

Now layer on the demands of building a detailed, district-wide budget for the next fiscal cycle—in time for public hearings in November—and you’ve got a scheduling problem that borders on absurd.

We’re asking our school system to do some of its most complex planning and community engagement work at the exact moment it’s managing one of the most operationally intense times of the year. The result? A compressed timeline with little room for strategic thinking or meaningful public input.

Unless I’m missing something, Duxbury is the earliest town in the Commonwealth to hold its Annual Town Meeting. Only a handful of towns attempt theirs in March at all, and those that do typically schedule them toward the end of the month—not the beginning.

So why are we pushing ourselves to go first?

The people of Duxbury value transparency, accountability, and thoughtful financial planning. But our current timeline undercuts those values. It forces key decisions into rushed windows. It strains our ability to collaborate across departments. And it leaves residents with fewer opportunities to weigh in before the numbers are locked in place.

This isn’t just a calendar tweak. It’s a structural improvement.

• Want a more strategic, inclusive, and transparent budget process? Move the meeting.
• Want to give our town’s financial leadership—and our school system—the time they need to do this work right? Move the meeting.
• Want to align with the best practices followed by the majority of Massachusetts towns? Move the meeting.

It’s a change that costs nothing—but it gives us back something invaluable: time to think clearly, plan responsibly, and engage meaningfully. I support this shift, and I hope you will too.