ORANGE — The Mahar Regional School District budget isn’t increasing significantly, but projected revenue losses have administrators looking to staff cuts to reduce town assessments.
Presenting early budget figures to the School Committee this week, Director of Finance and Operations Daniel Haynes said the projected $12.5 million budget is $203,335 more than this year, but that modest 1.65 percent increase translates into a 4.51 percent increase to the town assessments. The middle and high school regional district comprises the towns of Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham.
Haynes said projected revenues from other sources have decreased to the tune of $55,000 for the coming school year, and the difference must be passed on to the towns.
Chairman Peter Cross said the budget is down $130,000 from earlier projections thanks to a renegotiated transportation contract cutting Petersham’s five runs to three, and two staff cuts through attrition — a teacher retirement and a resignation in the superintendent’s office.
“Either way it’s going to be very problematic for the town of Orange, and also for New Salem and Wendell, who have pretty good-sized increases for small towns,” Cross said.
Cross said the number of students has decreased to the tune of 130 over five years, with no staff cuts, and the district could do some now.
Superintendent Tari Thomas said administrators have been looking for ways to “right-size” the organization as the student body shrinks. “If you’ve dropped 132 students over five years there needs to be some adjustments made, looking at maybe some slightly larger class sizes, etcetera,” Thomas said. Reductions have already been made in other “non-student-facing” areas, she said.
Thomas said the goal is to cut another $200,000 from the budget, and probably four more staff positions than already reduced in the budget.
Middle School Principal Eric Dion said staff have been told of the possible cuts, and they could be looking at class sizes increasing from 14 or 15 toward 20.
Member Johanna Bartlett said she is comfortable with larger classes, and hears 20 is the magic number, but anything beyond that is a seriously bad idea. Member Chante Jillson said the current middle school students have already been hit hardest by budget cuts throughout their education.
“We have to do something about the money and I get that, but we can’t steal their education either,” Jillson said. “It’s a delicate balance, a class size of 18 to 20 is reasonable.”
The School Committee will hold a budget hearing at the April 5 meeting. The committee meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Mahar library on the first Tuesday of the month.
You can reach Chris Curtis at: ccurtis@recorder.com