NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District will have a balanced budget this year, Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord said.
If that is true, it will make the 2018-19 school year the first in three years in which the district does not overspend its budget.
In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years, the district accumulated a deficit that Gaylord now estimates to be about $1.2 million. The deficit was not discovered until May, after the School Committee had in March approved a budget for the 2018-19 school year.
Gaylord said she is “pretty confident” that this new balanced budget, which she will present to the School Committee’s budget subcommittee at its meeting on Tuesday, will pass when put to a vote of the School Committee.
If that happens, the district likely would not have to request additional money from the member towns to fully fund the coming school year, which many members of the School Committee and local selectboards and finance committees had assumed it would have to do.
The district’s financial situation is being assisted by state agencies and lawmakers. State Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, supported legislation to allow the district to spend at a deficit this school year and borrow up to $2 million to be paid back over up to 10 years.
Although the district is legally permitted to borrow up to $2 million, Gaylord said it will not borrow more than it has to. Because the audit of the 2017-18 school year has not been finished, the true amount of the deficit cannot be calculated yet. Gaylord estimates that it is about $1.2 million, “but it could be less.”
“We don’t want to borrow any more than we actually have in deficit,” Gaylord said. “Just because it says ‘up to $2 million,’ doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily get $2 million.”
The “borrowing bill” was passed by the House of Representatives and is now before the Senate, Mark said. He said he has no specific expectation of when the Senate will vote on the bill. The Senate’s session ends Jan. 1.
The bill also requires the district to pay for a financial overseer who would report to the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“I’m hoping that with my background in finance I’ll be able to monitor the district’s financial operation and happenings,” Gaylord said, “and not as much oversight from the overseer (will be necessary) in the years to come, which should save the district additional money.”
In the meantime, the district has received an advance on its state aid money, which makes the unclear timeline on the bill a non-issue, Gaylord said. Half of the state aid the district will receive in the 2018-19 school year, about $2.2 million, was given in July, Gaylord said. The other $2 million will be paid in monthly installments over the course of the year.
Contact Max Marcus at 413-772-0261 ex. 261, or mmarcus@recorder.com.