Oakham Finance Committee Reserves $47,000 for Student Vocational Tuition, Eyes Override Vote

OAKHAM — February 18, 2026 — Oakham Finance Committee reserves $47,000 for vocational tuition and approves training budget. The three-member committee — Chair Corey Packard and members Claire Hendroth and Vinny Pucci — voted 3-0 Wednesday to add a $300 training line item to the Finance Committee's own budget, and reached consensus to hold a $47,000 placeholder in the preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget to cover tuition and transportation if an Oakham student is admitted to Norfolk County Agricultural School in Walpole, where last year's tuition ran approximately $27,000 plus a $1,700 capital charge. Hendroth also flagged a $5,000 assessors' stabilization fund override approved in 2017 that was quietly dropped after fiscal year 2019 — and for which no underride vote was ever taken — saying the committee will consult DLS representative Jerry Curtis about resuming the override. The committee is actively building a case for a Proposition 2½ override ballot question, with Hendroth noting that in fiscal year 2020 Oakham deliberately levied roughly $91,000 less than its legal limit to hold down the tax rate, a benefit the town can no longer extend.