GREENFIELD — With special education and English language learner costs on the rise, the Greenfield School Committee approved a roughly 5.5 percent increase to this year’s budget.
The committee agreed to move a $19 million budget forward to the mayor’s office and the council. Superintendent Jordana Harper warned that if the council was to cut this budget, it could be difficult to recover from in the long run.
“If there were significant reductions to the budget, we wouldn’t be able to simply absorb them from (School) Choice. It’s not sustainable,” Harper said, cautioning School Choice money is being stretched thinner than in recent years for this budget, leaving the schools with less wiggle room to brace against potential cuts.
Last year, the council cut the school budget by 1 percent across the board, and it still may reinstate that money this school year. If that money was to be given back, the proposed budget would show about a 4.5 percent increase.
Harper, along with school board member Susan Hollins, advocated to find ways, likely in future budgets, to carve out specific line items.
“When there are cuts to our budget, it disproportionately affects the amount our teachers and principals have discretionary control over,” Harper said. “So much of our budget is fixed costs.
“When we absorb fixed cost increases on such a large scale, absolutely instructional supplies are hurt, absolutely teachers are reaching into their pockets for supplies, absolutely principals are recommending increases and updates to curriculum material, science kits, library materials, office supplies — the things that children notice,” Harper said. “The things that make the difference between a great lesson and one where children are tuned out and tired. Absolutely, those are things that go.”
Hollins emphasized the need for updated library resources, which had been discussed at length in a prior budget meeting. “Since I went to school, the number of planets has changed,” Hollins said, adding it’s vital “the literature doesn’t have outdated role models.”
Per her recommendation, the three elementary schools will have $5,000 each to spend on new library materials. This money comes from $25,000 already budgeted for the library, leaving the remaining $10,000 for other related expenses.
Monday night, the board also discussed the potential for two additional school resource officers, which Mayor William Martin said will come out of the city’s budget, if approved.
Special education and English language learner costs increased by roughly $360,000. A state report released earlier this school year indicated the district to continue to support these growing local populations.
In the final day of deliberation in the budget subcommittee, Ward and his team changed the budget by:
adding $20,000 for textbooks, bringing the total to $30,000 after an in initial $40,000 request;
adding $60,000 for human resources because plans to merge services with the city have stalled;
and subtracting $39,000 from the Academy of Early Learning, cutting the proposal to make the principal into a full-time and not the current part-time job.
Ward said he wished the board could have indeed made the part-time principal job into full-time, but said it wasn’t doable.
“It’s a very difficult task” to put together the budget, Ward said. “We have a wonderful community to think of and thousands of taxpayers … and we have a large number of children to provide an education with.”