NORTHFIELD — While the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee works on solving its financial problem, state representatives Paul Mark and Susannah Whipps are preparing a bill they hope will buy the committee the time it needs to make wise decisions.
The legislation would allow the Pioneer Valley Regional School District to spend at a deficit while it corrects its finances. Normally, it is illegal for the district to overspend its budget, meaning that “any deficit they currently have was hidden from the public and from oversight,” Mark said.
“I am hopeful that (legislation) will prevent a situation where rash action needs to be taken and buys time for a thorough accounting and long-term solutions to be proposed,” Mark said. “Filing that bill is the most immediate action we can take and if passed, that should give the district and the appropriate executive branch agencies the time they need to get to the root of the problem and offer appropriate solutions.”
This legislation may give some relief to School Committee members, who have been tasked with making large-scale cuts to the district’s budget for next year. At its May 17 meeting, the committee learned the district would be at a deficit of roughly $1 million by the end of July.
The committee met again on May 24 to review cuts proposed by district administrators, then planned to meet Wednesday to vote on those cuts. Because of irregular town hall hours on Memorial Day, the meeting could not be posted early enough and had to be canceled.
The cancellation of the Wednesday meeting has brought the School Committee and the whole district right up to the June 1 deadline for notifying teachers of whether their contracts will be renewed. Now that the committee can’t give the required 48 hours’ notice to meet before that deadline, Superintendent Ruth Miller must make the decisions regarding teachers’ contracts.
Miller said she anticipates pink slips to be “very minimal.”
“There is not gonna be a big, ‘We’re gonna reduce all the staff,” she said.
The pink slips on June 1 will not necessarily lead to layoffs. But, if the district chooses not to renew those teachers’ contracts, it will have given the legally required 30 days’ notice “if I can’t be completely certain that they’re gonna have a job,” Miller said.
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ext. 261.