ORANGE — The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District School Committee is sending a nearly level-funded budget to Annual Town Meeting on Monday, May 11.
After putting $153,792 in General Fund expenditures into the School Choice fund, the 11-member committee is putting forward a $15.8 million budget for fiscal year 2027. The budget entails the elimination of one teaching position and one non-teaching position.
“I think these are responsible numbers and … it shows that we’re trying to help the town of Orange,” School Committee Chair Peter Cross said in a phone interview on Friday. “I think we’re doing the right thing.”
The motion squeaked by with the required two-thirds majority, generating an 8-3 vote. Members Barbara Doyle, Miguel Guerra and Sharon Gilmore voted against the motion.
“My big thing is, we have this money — like a rainy day fund [of $1.7 million]. We should use it to alleviate some of the burden on the town,” Guerra said in a phone interview on Friday. “The town’s in trouble. We could use $700,000 and still have $1 million.
“We have options,” he continued, “and I want to use all the options that we have.”
Others have argued, however, that that money must stay squirreled away for future use. It is a combination of the School Choice funds, and Capital Stabilization and Special Education Stabilization accounts.
Still, Cross said he predicts a massive effort at Annual Town Meeting to torpedo the proposed budget.
“It’s not a great situation, but I think we have done a lot already. I’ve said it before, that the shortage that the town of Orange has is really not all on Mahar. We have cut Orange’s assessment by about 10% this year,” he said, “and that may not be enough, but the fact is that that is as much as we can do right now without destroying our school.”
Budget breakdown
The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District serves students from Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham, with each town contributing its assessment. Michele Tontodonato, director of finance and operations for the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, said Orange’s assessment will be $5.2 million, New Salem’s will be $577,101, Wendell’s is $539,972 and Petersham’s will be just over $1.05 million, if the proposed budget is adopted at the four respective Annual Town Meetings.
The committee’s figures constitute a 0.97% increase over the current fiscal year. Health insurance spending sits at $2.8 million, which represents a 5.1% increase over this fiscal year and constitutes 17.6% of the overall budget. According to Tontodonato, health insurance for active employees will have an 11.95% rate increase over FY26.
The proposed special education spending is $3.97 million, up 0.8% and making up 24.9% of the total budget. Tontodonato attributes the hike to contracted rate increases as well as out-of-district costs. There are reportedly 21 students anticipated to be placed in out-of-district programming for the 2026-2027 academic year.
“What’s unique about Mahar … is 36% of our students are special education students,” Tontodonato said at the School Committee meeting on Thursday. She explained schools are legally required to offer certain services to all special education students.
According to Tontodonato, circuit breaker funds will cover $500,000 in out-of-district tuition in FY27 compared to $225,170 in FY26.
The state’s Special Education Reimbursement Program, commonly known as the Circuit Breaker Program, provides financial assistance to public school districts to offset the cost of delivering high-cost special education services. Circuit breaker reimbursement is provided based on costs paid by districts for qualified special education tuition and instruction services, and for associated transportation to out-of-district programs. Pricing is set by the state and other public entities outside of the Circuit Breaker Program.
Orange pushback
The Orange Finance Committee had voted earlier in the week to request that the Mahar School Committee reduce Orange’s assessment by $875,000 from the proposed $5.2 million assessment contained in Mahar’s FY27 budget.
Resident Christopher Woodcock spoke at the beginning of Thursday’s meeting to say he supported the Finance Committee’s request. He urged School Committee members to vote against the proposed FY27 Mahar budget before them and explained that Orange, the district’s primary member-town funder, is in a dire financial situation.
“The Mahar funding formula is based on foundation enrollment rather than ability to pay. As a result, the town of Orange — the least wealthy community in the district — pays 75% to 80% of Mahar’s apportioned costs. In recent years, especially, Orange has not been able to afford its assessment without crippling cuts to town services,” he said. “The terrible condition of Hayden Street, the access road leading to this beautiful school and campus, is reflective of the diminished overall state of the town. To me, it is also symbolic of the two very different worlds in which the town and Mahar operate in terms of financial health, operational spending and budget flexibility.”
Keith LaRiviere, who chairs the Finance Committee, also mentioned the town’s poor road conditions. At a joint meeting of the Finance Committee, Selectboard and Orange Elementary School Committee the previous night, he said the town’s financial struggles have resulted in a gutted highway crew of four members to maintain 100 miles of road.
“If you look on Facebook, everybody complains about the roads. So do I,” he said on Wednesday. “I blew out a tire last year on my car because I went through a pothole that I didn’t see.”
Theater reductions
Mahar junior Audrey Elwood, an eight-year veteran of the Mahar Theater Department, spoke at Thursday’s meeting to advocate for increasing the program’s budget, as failing to do so results in only one school play per year, as opposed to two. She said the young actors have already started planning the fall musical.
“In order to do a musical, we have to apply for rights, be given them and then purchase them. We have already purchased the rights for our next show, which expire if we don’t use them this fall,” she explained. “We also have applied and received a grant for a pit orchestra and it is already being organized as well.”
Elwood said the fall show primarily features high school students, while the spring show includes grades four through 12. This helps build up the program and makes students more comfortable as they transition to a new school. Elwood said theater is the school’s largest student activity, with at least 50 participants.
“It has been my home for eight years and I have truly cultivated a family that could never be replaced. By taking away a show and restricting us to one a year, it is taking that opportunity away from so many students who might just need that home and that love in their lives right now,” she said. “I know I speak for every theater kid, parent and family, whether they are here or not, when I ask you all to please consider this more in depth, as it is very near and dear to all of our hearts.”
Superintendent Elizabeth Zielinski told the Greenfield Recorder that the Theater Department is the school’s most expensive extracurricular.
