BERNARDSTON — Bernardston Elementary School has cut a part-time custodian to avoid overspending its budget for this school year, Principal Bob Clancy said. The custodian will be re-instated for the next school year.
At an April 25 meeting of the Bernardston Selectboard, Selectman Bob Raymond said that he did not support the cut because the town had invested a “significant” amount of money in the school and it should be maintained properly.
This cut was part of a larger district-wide effort to save money after Superintendent Ruth Miller told the School Committee earlier in the month that the Pioneer Valley Regional School District was spending money on substitute teachers at a rate that would cause the district to overspend its budget for this school year if changes were not made.
“That’s the only thing that will drive this budget over,” Miller said at the April 12 meeting.
Bernardston Elementary was one of three schools that Miller said was projected to overspend its budget due to spending on substitute teachers. The other two were Northfield Elementary and Pioneer Valley Regional.
Clancy said that Bernardston Elementary’s overspending was due to two unanticipated maternity leaves. He said Bernardston Elementary is now projected to meet its budget for the year, due to the cut and limitations put on buying classroom supplies. He added that he does not anticipate any problems due to the reductions to classroom supplies.
“We’ve got roughly 40 days of school left and we’ve got pretty much all we need (for supplies),” Clancy said.
At the School Committee’s Thursday meeting, Warwick Community School Principal Elizabeth Musgrave said that Warwick Community School and Pearl Rhodes Elementary School are also limiting spending on supplies to help balance the budget. Northfield Elementary School Principal Megan Desmarais said that Northfield Elementary replaced a librarian who resigned with a substitute who will work fewer days than the librarian would have.
Desmarais said in an email Tuesday that further questions on this subject had to be directed to Superintendent Miller.
On Sunday, Miller wrote in an email that Northfield Elementary was projected to overspend its budget due to unexpected medical leaves of two staff members. She did not comment on Pioneer Valley Regional School.