WARWICK — The Finance Committee has gone from zero to five members since the beginning of January.

The new committee is a “helpful development,” Selectboard Chairman Doc Pruyne said — especially considering the “very unusual situation” of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District. The new members are Greg Brodski, Laurette Crane, Olivier Flagollet, Diana Noble and Clyde Perkins Sr.

The Finance Committee had stopped existing since the last member resigned at the end of October; and had been essentially defuncted since the only other member resigned seven months prior, Pruyne said. Town Coordinator David Young suggested that potential committee members had been scared away by town meeting voters’ apparent disregard for the Finance Committee’s recommendations, particularly on the subject of school funding.

“Folks give a lot of their time, go to a lot of meetings, and they feel like they’re ignored at Town Meeting,” Young said at the beginning of January, when the Selectboard and Town Moderator David Koester were still seeking new members. “It’s difficult to attract competent, knowledgeable people, given what they’ve seen in the past.”

School funding will almost definitely be an issue for the Finance Committee again this year, but for a new reason. Although the School Committee has to approve a budget in time for the March 6 deadline, the final budget will not be ready until mid to late March, Pioneer Business Manager Tanya Gaylord said.

The delay is due to a legal complication around the School Committee’s decisions to close Warwick Community School or Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School. Previously, the School Committee had planned to decide on those issues by the end of January. But then, it turned out that the special legal circumstances that would allow the committee to close schools don’t go into effect until the district borrows money to cover its $450,000 deficit.

Gaylord expects the loan to be finalized by the end of March, at which point the School Committee will be able to formally make decisions on school closures. A revised budget reflecting the changes will likely be approved the same day, Gaylord said.

Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ex 261.