There was good news for the parents and taxpayers of Pioneer Valley Regional School District this week. The school system won’t have to run in the red this year or adding to its current deficit heartache.
For months now, since the district discovered it had been running over budget for at least two years and had amassed a deficit approaching $1.2 million, local leaders have been struggling with how to dial back spending and pay back the overage.
Since it would have been next to impossible for the four small rural Pioneer towns to absorb $1.2 million all at once, state legislators and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education were called in. The plan worked out among them was special legislation that would allow the district to overspend this academic year and borrow up to $2 million to cover losses incurred over three years. The borrowed money would have to be repaid over 10 years, and would come with tighter state financial oversight of the district.
That the district doesn’t have to dig its hole deeper this year is welcome news.
Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord and Superintendent Jon Scagel presented a new, balanced budget for this school year that the school board approved this week. It’s unclear to us so far just how painful that budget may be. We hope the spending adjustments made are ones that the district’s parents can live with and don’t harm the educational experience of the children.
One notable change to the budget is Gaylord’s position growing from part-time to full-time, which she and Scagel both said would be necessary in the current situation. The job was originally budgeted at $50,000, and is increased to $93,333 in the new budget.
This also is good news. It is unwise for a school district to try functioning with a part-time financial officer in good times, and plain foolishness to skimp in this way while trying to unsnarl such a fiscal mess.
We’ve seen similar surprise deficits in years past, at other districts in the county, but none this large, and they required heavy financial lifting to fix.
There are parts of the district’s finances that are still being analyzed. The current total deficit includes overruns in the school lunch program accumulated over more than 10 years, now estimated to be between $240,000 and $270,000.
All four towns voted at their town meetings this spring to repay the lunch deficit in three yearly installments, for a total of $270,000. But if the special Pioneer legislation passes on Beacon Hill, the state will likely require the district to borrow enough to cover its entire deficit, Gaylord said, including the lunch deficit, even though towns have voted to cover that part.
That could gum up the bookkeeping, but either way, help is on the way.
The other potential question mark is teachers’ salaries. Faculty contract negotiations for this school year will resume soon, after a summer break. And that could tip the scales some more.
At least now, current school officials seem to have a handle on the problem and are working out the solutions. When the dust settles, it would also make sense for the district’s taxpayers to demand the school committee take steps to prevent this kind of neglectful management from occurring again.