NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s realized savings from closing Warwick Community School is now estimated to be $148,423 in fiscal year 2021, according to Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord.
The figure was presented to the School Committee last week, and comes following the release of a financial report that stated the closure would save $35,650 as opposed to the $169,340 the School Committee and the district’s four member towns were told would be saved through the closure back in January.
“It is $20,942 less than was originally proposed on Jan. 26, when the School Committee took the vote to close the Warwick Community School,” Gaylord said during last week’s meeting.
She said approximately $85,000 of the updated net savings figure relates to positions that were ultimately not restored in the school budget as the result of merging with Northfield Elementary School. Some of the changes come following the Budget Subcommittee’s recent request for further reductions.
Specifically, one change is $35,000 from a half-time special needs teacher position that will not be restored.
“We originally were going to bring back this special needs teacher,” Gaylord explained. “After conversation between the administrative staff involved with that, they decided they would move forward without restoring that in the budget.”
Roughly $50,000 is included in the savings because the district is adding fewer teachers than it anticipated to help with the increased number of students set to attend Northfield Elementary as a result of the Warwick school closure. While the district expected needing one more kindergarten teacher based on student population, Northfield Elementary School Principal Megan Desmarais said the school will need 13 classroom teachers, which matches the current 10 classes in Northfield and three classes in Warwick.
“We dug deep into our census data for kindergarten, and have accounted for all the students we know to account for, and now are going to only have one kindergarten class instead of two,” Desmarais said.
The remaining change comes from roughly $27,250 in the “facilities updated consolidation” line of the budget, which Gaylord said represents a custodial position at the Warwick school which is instead becoming a full-time position at Pioneer. Gaylord said that, given the recognized need for custodial work at the middle and high school, this expense would have changed in the fiscal year 2021 budget regardless of whether Warwick Community School was closed.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.