MONTAGUE — Franklin County Technical School’s $16.8 million budget for fiscal year 2027 was approved last week with the reinstatement of one part-time employee as a result of a decline in anticipated health insurance costs, but with five other positions still cut.
The cuts include both student-facing and non-student-facing positions. With the budget adjusted to retain the part-time math teacher, the remaining cuts include the librarian, a carpentry instructor, two paraprofessionals and a public relations specialist. Additionally, an English teacher who is set to retire will not be replaced as part of these reductions.
The School Committee voted unanimously to accept the $16.8 million budget, which represents a 3.72% increase from fiscal year 2026’s numbers.
Before the vote, junior Aidan Pasic told the School Committee about an online petition he had made asking the district to retain Librarian Wally Keniston. The petition, hosted on the library advocacy website Every Library, reached just under 250 signatures during the meeting, and has continued to grow. The petition asked residents, parents and educational stakeholders to urge the committee to “rescind these firings,” referring to the various staff positions slated to be cut, and “return to the budget to balance the books.”
Pasic said he contacted nearly 20 library organizations, along with state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, about the librarian position after learning about the budget cuts. Pasic said the loss of Keniston serves as a loss for students in Franklin Tech’s 19 member towns, who may not have easy access to a library.
“I’m not here to assign blame to anyone in this room. There are no local villains,” Pasic said about the situation, adding that “chronic underfunding of rural schools” has put Franklin Tech and other schools in difficult situations.
Alongside Pasic, Claudia Palframan, co-director of the western region of the Massachusetts School Library Association, and Mohawk Trail Regional School District Librarian Emily Willis shared their concerns, with both citing the importance of librarians and their support of student literacy.
“When a library loses a professional librarian, it loses so much more than a librarian; it loses an expert, an information specialist, a teacher, a guide, an expert of literature who supports students, staff and families,” Palframan said.
Principal Brian Spadafino noted that the district looked across all areas of learning to prioritize keeping teachers in front of students amid the need to make reductions, and that the cut isn’t about Keniston. He said that while a library may not be open for all seven class periods of a school day, there is someone who is a certified school librarian who can be at the library for at least two periods each day.
“I’m on the Finance Subcommittee, and myself and one other member questioned not having a librarian,” School Committee member Sandy Brown said, adding that if money becomes available, the librarian will be the first position to come back.
The staffing changes represent a reduction of about $420,000 on top of another $500,000 cut from the operating budget in an attempt to rein in an initial $1.1 million deficit.
Other budget factors
This year, Franklin Tech faced these cuts primarily due to increased health insurance costs. Superintendent Richard Martin said during a budget hearing in February that this is the first time the district has made staffing cuts in more than a decade.
Franklin Tech is a member of the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust, and recent rate increases have impacted the budget. Business Manager Elizabeth Bouchard noted that the trust voted to increase rates heading into FY27 by 12.75%, which was less than Franklin Tech had anticipated. Between this reduction, and retirements and salary line changes, this meant that the part-time salary for the math teacher could be reinstated.
The meeting also included an agenda item indicating the district’s plan to separate from the trust and switch to a new health insurance provider, if that is found to be the best fiscal option. While no final decision has been made, the School Committee voted unanimously to approve sending the trust a notice of its intent to withdraw.
Other parts of the FY27 budget include a $7.9 million assessment across the 19 member towns, constituting a 7% increase from FY26. Chapter 70 aid was also limited this year, with $6.25 million in aid, which is up by $49,104 from FY26.