SOUTH DEERFIELD — The Frontier Regional School District School Committee has approved budget changes to level-fund for fiscal year 2021.
The previously approved budget, at just shy of $11.8 million, will ultimately be reduced by about $326,000 to bring it closer to the current fiscal year budget of $11.5 million, according to Shelley Poreda, director of business services for the Frontier Regional School District.
“The bottom line is, of the 2.84 percent increase (over the current fiscal year) that we did already approve for the budget, we are going to have to make some reductions moving forward, just to be responsible for the (COVID-19) crisis,” Poreda said at a School Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The 2.84 percent increase was largely the result of salaries and wages for teachers, instructional assistants and non-union personnel, Poreda explained.
It also included two new positions — an English teacher and a special education teacher. To level-fund the budget, those two new positions were eliminated.
“Those are certainly positions that the school needs and would love to have moving forward. However, the administration is working out plans to continue without those two positions,” Poreda said. “It wouldn’t compromise any of the existing programs that we’re offering.”
Poreda added that an instructional assistant recently resigned to further her education, and that position won’t be filled.
“Again, it’s a need of the school, but the timing worked out where we could make the decision to not fill that position to save some additional money there,” she said.
All non-salary expenses were reduced to the fiscal year 2020 level where possible, she added. The most significant of those reductions related to computers, summer special education programs and athletic field maintenance.
Cuts to new positions and non-salary expenses reduced the budget by about 1.88 percent, she said, meaning the district still needs to cut an additional $110,000, which it would prefer not to do, or fund the $110,000 through other means, such as through School Choice funding.
Overall, Poreda said the reductions would create a savings of about 4 percent for each of the four towns — Sunderland, Whately, Deerfield and Conway.
She noted that this all comes with little certainty as far as state and local revenues are concerned, and how Chapter 70 funding will be affected.
“If the state budget comes out and shows us we’ll have to make further reductions, we’ll have to make a decision to fund from other funding sources, or cut at that point,” she said, noting this would likely mean personnel cuts.
Another budget concern is potential back-to-school expenses related to COVID-19, such as cleaning products, technology needs or hiring a nurse to take temperatures, she said.
“We’re trying to take a proactive approach to supporting our towns and face what the reality is to come, even though the reality is unknown,” she said.
Before the vote, committee member Phil Kantor, who also serves on the budget subcommittee, emphasized the importance of putting faces behind the reductions.
“What I don’t want to do is go to level-funding and not have the story to tell of what that means … at Town Meeting,” Kantor explained.
He said he would prefer to stick with the original numbers and bring them to Town Meeting for a motion to be made there.
But Vice Chair Bill Smith disagreed, arguing it would be a mistake to amend the budget on a Town Meeting floor.
“If we don’t prepare a number and give the same number to all four towns, we’re making a critical, critical mistake because it’s going to turn into a scramble,” he said.
Poreda and Superintendent Darius Modestow clarified for School Committee members that Tuesday’s vote was about agreeing to get to level-funding. As for how the committee gets there, beyond the already proposed reductions to expenses and new positions, that would be decided after.
The board voted unanimously to accept a level-funded budget, with committee member Olivia Leone abstaining.
Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 263. Twitter: @MaryEByrne