NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District School Committee voted in favor of a roughly $14.7 million budget for fiscal year 2021 on Thursday, up from about $14.1 million this fiscal year.
However, the figure does not include certified excess and deficiency, which the school district’s Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord said had not been certified by the time of the School Committee’s vote. The total budget number will be updated with a vote during the Feb. 13 School Committee meeting.
According to Gaylord, the increase from one fiscal year to the next only amounts to a 1.9 percent increase, because $362,619 is included in debt service. Additionally, the excess and deficiency, special education and insurance and benefits line items will be restored.
She explained that the assessments to the towns will increase by 0.7 percent. The assessments will be higher due to the restoration of $71,021 to the PVRS Salaries account to support counseling services in the district. The School Committee previously proposed eliminating an adjustment counselor, which was a topic of contention during the budget hearing last week.
Gaylord said this portion of the budget should be restored through the excess and deficiency funds, which will potentially be approved following a School Committee vote on Thursday, Feb. 13.
Based on the presented fiscal year 2021 budget, the town assessments will see Bernardston pay $2,971,382 (up from $2,969,500 last year), Leyden $842,112 (up from $790,103), Northfield $4,656,804 (up from $4,641,675), and Warwick $840,342 (up from $838,264) for a total of $9,310,639.
Gaylord and the School Committee noted that this budget was based on the current district configuration, and may need to be adjusted depending on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner’s pending decision on whether to close Warwick Community School.
Following Tuesday’s budget hearing, members of the School Committee and the public expressed concerns over potentially cutting an adjustment counselor at Pioneer Valley Regional School.
“It would be a detriment to eliminate the adjustment counselor,” said School Committee member Jeanne Milton, of Bernardston.
Milton said students, especially between seventh and 12th grades, are often “in crisis” in part due to teenagers’ use of social media impacting their mental and social health. Superintendent Jonathan Scagel said Administrator of Special Education Chris Maguire is dual-certified to handle the responsibilities of adjustment counselor, and would be available to students “at all times.”
Deborah Potee, a Northfield resident and Pioneer school district parent who works as an adjustment counselor at Greenfield High School, agreed with Milton, saying she “couldn’t imagine” not having someone in the role. Potee sent an email to School Committee members Thursday afternoon, ahead of their meeting, urging them to keep the position.
“The current Pioneer adjustment counselor also advises the Training Active Bystanders (TAB) program, has been trained by Quabbin Mediation and has done so for years,” Potee wrote. “This program is unique to Pioneer and one of the few restorative justice programs that directly engages students to play a role in managing conflict and building a positive community. Will this program survive if the adjustment counselor looses her job?”
While conversation Thursday night wasn’t necessarily about restoring this position, Gaylord said the School Committee and administration will reevaluate the status and needs of mental health services across the district. They will decide to allow funding, either for the adjustment counselor position or a new position, depending on possible restructuring of mental health services.
“We want to best use all counseling across district,” Gaylord said.
She said challenges while constructing the latest budget as presented Tuesday included factors such as declining enrollment over the past 13 years, towns’ past struggles to support the district budget, addressing the financial issues required by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and making budget cuts while sustaining quality programs for students.
The district enrollment numbers presented Tuesday show there has been a loss of 420 students over 13 years due to students graduating or leaving the district for other reasons. There has been a loss of about 201 students since just 2017, with a loss of 57 students between 2019 and 2020.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264.