MONTAGUE — The Gill-Montague Regional School District School Committee has approved its $26.43 million fiscal year 2023 budget, with primary changes including the addition of 19 full-time instructors, increased charter school enrollment and a focus on support services relative to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects.
The budget is a $2.31 million increase over fiscal year 2022’s figures, a change district administrators attribute to causes such as inflation, new state aid programs and an increase in enrollment. Town assessments will account for around 50% of funding, whereas Chapter 70 aid will provide around 30%, 13% will stem from grants and revolving accounts, and the remaining 7% will come from a combination of other sources.
Town assessments total around $13 million, with Gill’s share at roughly $1.7 million and Montague’s at about $11.3 million. The budget must now be approved by voters at Annual Town Meetings in Gill and Montague, which are projected for May 2 and May 7, respectively.
As part of the budget presentation shown at meetings with town officials and in a public hearing, a slideshow highlighted administrators’ goals for next school year.
“The most important things for us to emphasize in building our strategic objectives and really driving the building of our budget are the pandemic and significant disruptions to student learning that have continued for more than a year,” Superintendent Brian Beck said.
The 19-employee addition that makes up $787,206 of the budget includes an instructional technologist, speech language pathologist, Innovative Pathways teacher and adjustment counselor, secondary behavior interventionist, elementary math interventionists and multiple paraprofessionals. These expenses will be supported by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) federal grant funding, of which the district received roughly $1.08 million for FY23, compared to the current fiscal year’s allotment of $196,000.
Another major expenditure change can be attributed to a rise in charter school enrollments for Gill-Montague students, accounting for a $515,559 increase from FY22.
“This is the largest increase in charter enrollment for Gill-Montague since the inception of charter schools back in the late ’90s,” the district’s presentation reads. “FY22 charter cost is higher than budgeted and so the increase here is pretty significant. Charter tuition is averaging anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000 per student this year.”
The budget proposal also listed a variety of capital improvement projects, with funding to be allocated by the towns. Major projects include a $63,000 tennis court resurfacing at Turners Falls High School and Great Falls Middle School, a new fire alarm system at Sheffield Elementary School for $90,000, a continuation of the $300,000 Gill Elementary School floor replacement project, and the $315,000 floor remediation project at Hillcrest Elementary School that was approved at this month’s Special Town Meeting in Montague.
In terms of revenue, the district received a $600,000 Chapter 70 state aid increase, bringing the aid amount from around $7.13 million to $7.78 million. This will help the district “increase instructional and support services” and “identify and implement interventions for a wide range of social-emotional needs,” as written in the presentation.
“Chapter 70 statewide increased by 8.8%, but Gill-Montague’s Chapter 70 increased by 9.1%, so we did quite well for Chapter 70 this year,” Director of Business and Operations Joanne Blier said.
The additional Chapter 70 funding can be attributed to a marginal rise in Gill-Montague’s enrollment from 970 students district-wide during FY22 to 1,020 in FY23.
“While the (population of) students may not be exactly where we want them to be,” Blier said, “it is helping our foundation budget, which is helping our Chapter 70.”
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.