NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District will not have to spend at a deficit for this school year, Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord reiterated at a meeting of the School Committee’s budget subcommittee this week.
Gaylord and Superintendent Jon Scagel presented a new budget, fully revised from the one passed by the School Committee in March.
This comes as the state Senate is reviewing special legislation that would allow the district to spend at a deficit this year and borrow up to $2 million to cover losses incurred over the past two years. The borrowed money would have to be repaid over a period of up to 10 years.
“We were going to deficit spend. Now we don’t have to. Be happy,” said School Committee member Peggy Kaeppel.
The full School Committee will review and likely vote on the new budget at its meeting Sept. 13.
“Nothing really changed (in the revised budget). We just looked back and asked, ‘What are we really spending? What are we using these lines for?’” Gaylord said. The new budget, she explained, mostly reflects the real amounts spent last year.
One of the only notable changes to the budget is an increase of Gaylord’s position from a part-time job to full-time, which she and Scagel both said would be necessary. The job was originally budgeted at $50,000, and is increased to $93,333. The School Committee may vote not to increase the hours in Gaylord’s position.
There are parts of the district’s finances that are still being determined, though. Gaylord estimates that the deficit accumulated over the past two years will be roughly $1.2 million when it’s all accounted for. But that number includes a deficit incurred by the school lunch program, accumulated over a course of more than 10 years, now estimated to be between $240,000 and $270,000.
All four towns voted at their town meetings to repay the “lunch deficit” in three yearly installments, for a total of $270,000. But if the legislation passes, the state will likely require the district to borrow enough to cover its entire deficit, Gaylord said, and in the state’s perspective, the lunch deficit is included in the district’s entire deficit.
“I think the state wants to see the deficit come to zero by the end of (fiscal year) ’19,” Gaylord said. “If the towns pay us (the lunch deficit) over three years, we’re still going to be carrying a deficit in that fund, which would mean a district deficit. I think the state wants to see it gone completely.”
If the state does require the district to borrow enough to cover the lunch deficit, that requirement will supersede the decision the towns made to fund the lunch deficit on their own in three yearly payments. In that case, Gaylord said, the money the towns had appropriated for those payments will be designated as “free cash,” and will likely be used to offset the school budget next year.
“That’s why I haven’t billed the four towns yet for their portions of the school lunch,” she said. “It’s still in limbo.”
The other potential question mark is in teachers’ salaries. Faculty contract negotiations for the 2018-19 school year will be resumed soon, Scagel said, after being suspended for summer break. An initial fall meeting has not yet been scheduled.
Contract negotiations historically take about two to three months, Scagel said.
Contact Max Marcus at
mmarcus@recorder.com
or 413-772-0216 ex 261.