NORTHFIELD — To stay within this year’s budget, School Superintendent Ruth Miller is suggesting pooling classrooms into the school library or cafeteria, where fewer teachers could oversee more classes.
In an emergency meeting Thursday night, Miller said the district has, for the past three weeks, been spending $4,000 per week on substitute teachers. The only schools in the district that have not gone over its substitute teacher budget are Warwick Community School and Pearl Rhodes Elementary School in Leyden.
“Now we have to say, ‘Are we gonna be able to make ends meet til the end of the school year, and maybe have a little bit of money left over?’” Miller said. “My answer to that question right now is that we do not. And the reason we don’t is because of our sub line (the money being spent on substitute teachers). And they’re gonna go even further over in the next two months.”
Some committee members wondered whether the overspending could be due to an unusually bad flu season. Miller responded that, for whatever reason, there has been a pattern in the district’s schools of more substitute teachers being used toward the ends of school years.
Although Bernardston Elementary School, Northfield Elementary School and Pioneer Valley Regional School are “significantly over their sub lines,” Miller said the district has otherwise spent within its budget for the 2018 fiscal year.
“That’s the only thing that will drive this budget over,” she said.
Miller said the committee may have to come up with some creative alternative to using substitute teachers if it is to stay within the budget. She suggested pooling together classrooms that would otherwise require a substitute teacher.
The next meeting of the School Committee is scheduled for April 26. The committee expects to have more detailed information on spending at that meeting, so it can make an informed decision to address the problem.
Contact Max Marcus:
413-772-0261, ext. 261
mmarcus@recorder.com