MONTAGUE — Before the COVID-19 outbreak in March forced schools to shut down for the rest of the school year, the Gill-Montague Regional School District had been projected to finish the year comfortably within its budget, with a minor surplus of cash.
While the school shutdown has presented some new costs, the savings for Gill-Montague outweigh the costs, so the district is now projected to finish the year with a surplus of about $240,000, according to district Business Director Joanne Blier.
Areas that have had significant savings because of the shutdown include substitute teachers, athletic events and transportation, she said; while new costs in computer equipment for remote teaching, personal protective equipment and others have offset those savings somewhat. With teachers still working remotely, there have been no major savings in payroll.
But the surplus isn’t being looked at as a boon. Rather, Blier said it will likely become a cushion to help carry the district through the economic recession that will become increasingly apparent later this year, and that is expected to affect public schools at least through the 2021 to 2022 school year.
With state tax revenue expected to take a hit in the coming fiscal year, Massachusetts schools are expecting less state aid for the 2020 to 2021 school year than they would have planned for if not for the pandemic, Blier said.
“I don’t know how they could fund our budget the way we were expecting them to fund it,” she said.
In past economic disasters, the federal government has generally supported states with “stimulus money,” Blier said. It is most likely that the same will happen this time, she said, which should soften the immediate financial impact on schools.
But, federal support to states typically only covers the first year of an economic recession, Blier added. Thus, a second-year stimulus package would be very unusual, and can’t be counted on — leaving schools to wonder how much state aid they should expect in coming years.
In 2019, Massachusetts’ public education funding model was revised so that, among other outcomes, the needs of small rural school districts would be better addressed. Gill-Montague, because of its somewhat unique demographics, benefited more than most other local school districts, with state aid for the current school year having increased by about $350,000 over last year — a tenfold increase. Gill-Montague’s budget for the 2020 to 2021 school year was designed with the expectation that state aid would continue to increase.
Now, with state funding suddenly leaving a question mark in the budget, some of the plans for next year will be reconsidered. Gill-Montague had planned on proposing a $23.6 million budget (compared to $22.5 million in the current year). Now, Blier said, school administrators are starting to consider revisions to that proposal.
But without knowing how deeply state tax revenue will be impacted, and how much support the federal government may lend, it is still too early to know how much may need to be trimmed from next year’s budget, Blier said.
“I can guess at where I think we’re going to land, but it would really just be a guess,” she said. “We can prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.