Geoffrey Swett had a career in senior management in the fields of healthcare and education before retiring at 51. Wanting to help his community, Swett sat on the Finance Committee for six years before joining the School Committee 15 years ago.

“As the years have gone by, I have started to appreciate that much more the role that governance can and should play in the success of an enterprise,” Swett said.

While the School Committee’s main priority is managing the budget, he believes the budget “reflects the vision and priorities” of the schools.

With rising inflation and no more Covid pandemic relief funding, districts across the state are struggling and Wareham is among them. Swett said Wareham also has a rising number of high-need students who need additional support and a “shrinkage” at the high school, with the population continuing to decline.

Swett said Wareham has a large population of senior citizens who are on low fixed incomes, making them less open to the idea of a tax increase when they too are facing the effects of inflation on a day-to-day basis.

He added that Wareham has other departments and needs that require increased funding so the schools cannot continue to take up an increasingly large piece of the town’s budget every year.

In 2017, the teacher to student ratio at Wareham schools was 13 to one, according to Swett. That ratio is now 11.3 to one, which Wareham cannot afford.

Swett believes reducing the number of teachers and providing classrooms with the right tools could help the budget while not placing a new burden on the remaining teachers. 

“We have to give the teachers tools that will help them do their job in a meaningful way, and I think the computers will answer that,” he said.