MONTAGUE — The Gill-Montague Regional School District School Committee is navigating a preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget with a potential $2.17 million general fund deficit, stemming from rising costs and insufficient state aid.
In the preliminary budget presented to the Gill-Montague School Committee on Tuesday, the estimated revenue for the operating budget is about $25.6 million, with some figures subject to change as the Chapter 70 allocation and town assessments are finalized.
However, if the district were to fund every budget request made, including an additional 8.5 staff positions, which includes funding to reinstate the curriculum director and school resource officer positions that were cut last year, the district would spend $27.77 million, leaving a gap of $2.17 million.
“Our initial budget includes [8.5] added position requests — which we simply cannot cover with our anticipated revenue,” the presentation states. “Even if we were to maintain only our current staffing and programs (a level-services budget), the resulting assessment increase would still exceed what our member towns can comfortably fund without impacting other municipal services or requiring a tax override.”
While the final town assessments will be calculated after the governor’s budget is released, it is estimated that both towns will see combined increase of $561,613.
School Committee member Heather Katsoulis pointed out the increasing financial assistance Montague and Gill are being asked to provide while state aid stagnates.
“It’s a further cost shift from the state to the town,” member Steve Ellis added.
The presentation explained priorities for balancing the budget, which include role consolidation and staff attrition without layoffs, and collaborating with town boards to “find a ‘middle ground’ that protects the core classroom experience while respecting the statutory limits of the towns’ budgets.”
During the FY26 budget season, there was a potential $1.3 million deficit that was avoided by no new staff being added, along with three staff cuts being made.
Budget drivers
Tuesday’s presentation shared how there is a “perfect storm” of rising costs for health insurance, utilities and supplies between 7% and 9% in recent years, while the Chapter 70 state aid formula keeps funding growth minimal due to declining enrollment.
The current estimate in Chapter 70 growth from FY26 to FY27 is $89,100, based on current foundation enrollment of 891 students.
Additionally, the anticipated minimum aid from Chapter 70 can’t bridge the increased health insurance costs and necessary special education spending. The budget estimates receiving $480,000 in FY27 in rural school aid — the same amount received in FY26.
The district also no longer has pandemic-era federal funding to support mental health staff, instructional assistants and math interventionists, all of which were absorbed into the budget in FY26, but are not sustainable.
Another matter this budget season is the district moving away from using funds in the School Choice Revolving and Excess and Deficiency accounts, saving $409,000.
Interim Superintendent Tari Thomas explained that since the COVID-19 pandemic, when balances in revolving accounts were increased for stability, Chapter 70 funding has remained stagnant, requiring more frequent use of these accounts, which she said needs to be reduced now after drawing from them too often.
A balancing act
Before the budget presentation began, Gill-Montague Education Association (GMEA) Vice President Nikki Henderson shared what teachers union members want to see prioritized in the FY27 budget. These priorities include funding student-facing positions, creating and/or reinstating staff to help decrease classroom sizes and having high-quality instructors.
“We need well-paid, fully staffed schools. Invest in the professionals that work directly with the students,” Henderson said, reading one quote from member feedback.
One source of feedback during public comment referred to the use of a “rainy day” fund to support the budget. Later in the meeting, while discussing the Excess and Deficiency Account, Ellis wanted to highlight the trend of the district’s use of this account. He said a structural deficit has been built into that budget because of the account’s usage, though he acknowledged that this use of rainy day funds is not “unique or specific to Montague.”
“This is a public budgeting challenge and it’s a private budgeting challenge,” he said, “so we just have to make sure we navigate it well and it’s the front end of the process.”
Other expense drivers in the preliminary FY27 budget are the employee benefits and insurance budget, set to increase by $1.01 million. Other increases were avoided due to the district’s membership with the Group Insurance Commission, compared to other districts that are dealing with rate spikes from the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust.
Need for state advocacy
During the budget discussion, School Committee Chair Jane Oakes said there has been advocacy to increase rural aid for schools, coming from local legislators and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
In 2022, the Special Commission on Rural School Districts declared that at least $60 million more in rural school aid would be required to adequately fund these districts. Though appropriations have increased slightly, peaking at $16 million in FY25, that full amount has never been funding. Rural school aid dropped back to $12 million in FY26.
Oakes said an increase in allocations would go a long way for rural schools, and that the community must take advantage of any chance to communicate that need to the state.
“Anytime you see that there’s a call for that kind of communication, please, even if you’ve done it before, it never hurts to do it again, and really reach out whenever you can to people at the legislative level,” Oakes said.
Thomas, Business and Operations Director Joanne Blier, Oakes, GMEA Chair Heidi Schmidt, Ellis and Katsoulis threw their support behind a November 2025 letter from the Massachusetts Teachers Association to Gov. Maura Healey about the funding crisis that rural schools are facing. The letter urges an increase in rural school aid, revising the inflation cap on Chapter 70, and strengthening the Special Education Circuit Breaker Program and reimbursements for transportation costs.
The preliminary FY27 budget presentation is available at tinyurl.com/yza7rhww.