LEYDEN — As budget planning gets underway, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District intends to increase assessments to the towns of Bernardston, Leyden and Northfield by a total of $974,343 in fiscal year 2027.
Pioneer officials presented their first draft of an $18 million FY27 budget, with nearly $16.16 million to come from local assessments, to the Leyden Selectboard on Monday. The projected 9.97% increase in local assessments is due to decreases in state aid and grant funding, as well as an increase in staffing, though school district officials cautioned that numbers are subject to change as health insurance costs are finalized.
“Unfortunately, it’s bigger because we’re getting less money,” Pioneer Finance Director Taffy Bassett-Fox said.
Bassett-Fox said that in FY27, the district will see a $123,000 decrease in federal special education funding and a $100,000 reduction in state rural school aid.
“That’s a big hit,” Bassett-Fox said of the special education and rural aid reductions. “The change in assessment, I will admit, it’s large.”
In addition to declining aid, the FY27 budget proposal includes reinstating a certified librarian at Pioneer Valley Regional School, adding a maintenance worker and increasing a part-time math teacher to a full-time position. The budget also includes funding for new athletic uniforms and replacing aging sports equipment, covering a $37,000 increase in transportation and reinstating building substitutes. A building substitute is someone who fills in for a position specific to one school building, rather than working in ranging positions districtwide.
Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said the district tried to limit expense increases as much as possible since the towns would have to cover the decreases in state aid.
“There will be a larger assessment increase this year; there’s no way around it,” Kinsella said. “We did not bring you a bells-and-whistles budget.”
“Our main priority as I see it is stability,” Bassett-Fox added.
The total amount assessed to the three towns is expected to be $10 million; however, Kinsella said that number is subject to change, as the draft budget does not include increases to health insurance costs. While building a draft budget, the district was in the process of switching its insurance provider from the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust to the state-backed Group Insurance Commission.
“In version 2.0, the health insurance numbers will look different,” Kinsella said.
Kinsella added that while the budget is increasing, education costs have increased at a slower rate than other line items in the town budgets in recent years.
“Education is increasing at a vastly slower rate than other cost centers,” Kinsella said.
Leyden Selectboard members said they appreciated the district’s efforts to keep costs low, but the increases would still be a difficult sell to taxpayers, as education accounts for the largest percentage of the town’s budget.
“As everything else increases on a municipal level … my worry is we’re reaching a tipping point,” Selectboard Chair Erica Jensen said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.”
“It really impacts every other decision we have to make,” added Selectboard member Katherine DiMatteo.
Pioneer officials are expecting to bring the draft budget to Northfield and Bernardston in the coming weeks for feedback as they continue to make adjustments.
“This is our first pass at it,” Bassett-Fox said. “This is draft budget.”
The district expects to have a final version of the budget complete by Feb. 5 in preparation for a School Committee budget vote on Feb. 12.