LEYDEN — Leyden residents approved all proposed spending for the Pioneer Valley Regional School District at Town Meeting on Saturday, even as Finance Committee chairwoman Michelle Giarusso advocated delaying those votes until a later date when more information on the school district’s finances might be available.
At an emergency School Committee meeting Thursday, it was revealed that the district would be at a deficit of almost a million dollars by the end of July. Of the district’s four member towns, Northfield and Warwick had already held their town meetings and had approved their own portions of the school district’s expenses — making Leyden the first town to have its town meeting in light of this new information. Bernardston, the fourth town in the district, has its town meeting June 6.
“You’re gonna be reading stuff in the paper,” Giarusso said at Town Meeting. “Our own School Committee does not believe the figures. We don’t know what this deficit is. We (the Finance Committee) feel that we’re gonna have to come back to another town meeting once we get the correct figures.”
Yet residents decided to go ahead with the school-related votes, with Selectboard chairman Lance Fritz opining that the odds of getting clearer information on the school district’s finances in time for Leyden to develop a new budget would be “slim to none.”
Those school spending articles were $1,918.56 for capital projects; $10,285.30 for technology replacement; and $5,544 per year for the next three years as Leyden’s portion for repaying the district’s school lunch deficit.
Leyden also approved an omnibus budget of $1,658,642, a 5.24-percent increase over the current fiscal year’s budget of $1,576,075. This includes $871,318 for education: $741,830 for the Pioneer district, and $129,488 for Franklin County Technical School.
Voters also approved a payment of $7,500 to start before- and after-school programs at Pearl Rhodes Elementary School, despite reports from the Thursday School Committee meeting that the district will likely have to close schools in order to address its financial problem.
“While the school is open, this is an effort to make it viable,” said Pearl Rhodes principal Bob Clancy.
The program is designed to be self-funding after it has started, Clancy said.
Only two articles on the warrant did not pass: the first, a revision to the zoning bylaw that would have allowed the Planning Board more leeway in its abilities to give special permits for building. In a thorough discussion of the issue, residents expressed concerns about how the change might affect the character of the town and whether or not it would be fair for property owners who have already built according to the current laws.
Another article on buying equipment for a new truck was voted down, only because Highway Department Superintendent David Brooks explained that the equipment was already covered by insurance.
All other warrant articles passed.
To withdraw from the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District.
To accept reports from town officers for the year 2017.
To accept and expend any sum of money that may be available under provisions of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 90, authorize the Selectboard to enter into a contract with the Massachusetts Highway Department and borrow in anticipation of 100-percent reimbursement of said amount.
To authorize the Selectboard to enter negotiations with Robert Warrant to purchase or lease the Forge property adjacent to Town Hall.
To authorize the Selectboard to lease a black-and-white printer for five years at $151.99 per month, $9,119.40 in total.
$4,000 for the Council on Aging.
$6,000 for three bay sinks in the Town Hall kitchen.
$2,000 for the audit fund.
$1,500 for the Land Acquisition fund.
$1,000 for the Assessors Revaluation account.
$62,911 for the Technology Stabilization account.
$40,000 from the Highway Capital Stabilization fund for an all-season dump body for the 1998 Freightliner.
The town must vote to authorize the following revolving funds accounts. Each is listed with its spending limit:
Recreation Committee, $2,000; animal control officer, $5,000; fire safety inspections, $700; COA Shopping Service, $5,000; Planning Board, $1,000; Agricultural Commission, $2,000; and East Hill Cemetery Commission, $5,000.
To authorize town departments, boards and committees to apply for state and federal grants.
To accept the Library Incentive Grant, Municipal Equalization Grant and Non-Resident Circulation Grant, and to transfer those sums to the Robertson Memorial Library budget.
To accept any sum of money that may be granted from the Quintus Allen Trust Fund and to appropriate the money for equipment, activities and supplies at Pearl Rhodes Elementary School.
Before the regular town meeting, there was a special town meeting to transfer sums of free cash:
$1,757.45 to the Winter Maintenance account.
$40,000 to the Highway Capital Stabilization account.
$26,378.55 to the Stabilization fund.