TURNERS FALLS — Several jobs in the Gill-Montague Regional Schools have been saved in a revision of next year’s budget.
The School Committee approved a final budget, which includes positions that were expected to be cut, on Wednesday night. The budget was bigger than the preliminary proposal due to an increase in money from Montague.
Positions that have been restored include a secondary level teacher, a high school special educator, a full-time director of education and curriculum and one paraprofessional.
The new budget also puts $10,000 toward the district’s excess and deficiency fund and funds an $18,000 preschool position due to a reduction in grant funding for the position.
“Any cuts are difficult,” committee member Jane Oaks said. “But this seems like a really reasonable way to try to balance as much as we can. I think it’s well thought out and sensible.”
Superintendent Michael Sullivan presented the revised budget after discussions with the Montague finance committee two weeks ago. Some finance committee members expressed specific wishes for the additional funding, but most gave their blessing to the School Committee to adjust its budget as the committee wants.
Sullivan said the revised budget essentially restores the hardest cuts made in the preliminary budget.
“Well the logic seems to me is, what were the really hard things to cut, and if he had had that revenue to begin with, we would probably not be looking at the things at the bottom of that first page,” Sullivan said.
The final budget does retain some of the original cuts, including five paraprofessionals. It doesn’t include funding for new teacher laptops, or an additional $8,550 for textbook replacements, and also cuts the district budget for professional development and delays two building projects.
Seven members of the committee voted to approve the budget, with Timmy Smith abstaining after calling for a roll call vote. Smith expressed concerns that the excess and deficiency fund was slowly shrinking as the budgets get tighter.
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