TURNERS FALLS — A tentative budget for the Franklin County Tech School that includes a 1.3 percent increase in total funding was approved by the School Committee on Wednesday night.
The state aid the school receives will remain the same, so the additional funding the school is seeking from the 19 member-towns will increase 3 percent, or an additional $169,700.
The proposed budget comes to $10,448,241, but also includes cuts to balance the budget.
The school isn’t hiring to fill a retirement in the culinary department or replace a librarian who resigned, and is closing the Business Tech department due to lack of enrollment.
The budget would eliminate the career enhancement coordinator and replace it with a co-op education coordinator, who would work with students and employers to get more students co-op jobs in their fields during school.
“Our kids want to work,” Jocelyn Croft, the school’s vocational curriculum director said. “They want to go out on co-op and work in their trade.”
The school is using one of the retirements to bring in a part-time music teacher to share with Erving Elementary School and a part-time Spanish teacher, which would make it budget neutral but add a new program to the school. Superintendent Rick Martin said prospective students often ask if the school has a foreign language.
“We believe we lose kids because of that,” he said.
Most of the School Committee was in support of the curriculum changes and the small budget increases. The budget passed with a unanimous vote. The budget is still tentative and the School Committee may make changes before it is formally approved.