BUCKLAND — The public has weighed in on the Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s proposed $21.5 million fiscal year 2021 budget, and is concerned, along with the School Committee, that it is not sustainable.
Next year’s proposed budget eliminates the equivalent of almost 12 full-time positions, and it’s possible, because the budget hasn’t been voted yet, that more cuts, including program cuts, could happen before the final vote.
The School Committee presented the $21.5 million budget to the almost three dozen people who attended the hearing, and Chair Martha Thurber said it was a long, arduous process, and one the committee didn’t take lightly.
Thurber started by telling audience members that the committee, just like them, wants to provide the highest-quality education to students at all district schools. She said schools are doing a good job providing a lot of hands-on and innovative programs, including work-study, service learning, robotics and more.
The proposed budget the School Committee will vote Wednesday is a 3.62 percent or $751,093 increase over this year’s budget. It would require a 7.40 percent increase or $855,164 in aggregate assessments to the eight district towns.
School Committee member Jason Cusimano of Shelburne said Chapter 70 general state aid to West County schools has stayed nearly flat over the past five years, with only a 0.5 percent increase each year. Next year, the district expects that Chapter 70 and Chapter 71 state-funded transportation reimbursements will remain “virtually flat,” with a total increase of 0.6 percent, up $36,330 from this year.
The committee said, unfortunately, costs keep rising faster than funding.
Thurber said budget funding would come from several sources: $12,410,178 or 57.71 percent from town assessments; $629,083,924 or 28.29 percent from Chapter 70; $1,641,006 or 7.63 percent from the district’s revolving funds; $700,000 or 3.26 percent from Chapter 71; $360,000 or 1.67 percent from Rowe for tuition; and $309,804 or 1.44 percent from other funding sources.
Members said in one of the versions, wood shop and instrumental band in the elementary schools were cut, but were added back in after a lot of discussion.
At one point in the budget process, which started in November, $400,000 was cut, hence the wood shop and instrumental band cuts, but the School Committee added $200,000 back in to save those programs.
“We felt the cuts were a little too deep at $400,000,” Thurber said.
Cusimano said some position cuts were easier than others because a full-time nurse, for instance, is retiring and won’t be replaced. He said the district will still have one nurse. Meanwhile, the district’s psychologist requested a part-time position, rather than the full-time one, now.
He said there are costs that cannot be controlled, including benefits and insurance, School Choice tuition, administration costs, retirement, some operation costs, transportation costs and instructional costs established through union contracts.
Thurber said beyond the cuts already reflected in the proposed budget, any other cuts “beyond this could get painful really quickly.”
She said the district doesn’t want to make it so that people start leaving because that would only cause further problems in years to come.
The School Committee said in a note attached to the proposed budget that “We are profoundly aware of the impact that the MTRSD (Mohawk Trail Regional School District) budget has on the budget of our district towns. That’s why the district has taken the lead in working with other rural districts and state legislators to identify solutions to the current fiscal issues that challenge not only our district, but all rural districts — and all rural towns.”
Charlemont Selectboard member Marguerite Willis said the school district needs to understand that towns are struggling and with assessments going up to more than a 7 percent increase, it’s going to be even more difficult for them next year. She said towns and schools have to work together to come up with ways to generate revenue so that both thrive.
“The numbers are getting more and more bleak every year,” she said.
Lark Thwing, chair of the Hawley Finance Committee, agreed that the district is going to have to work with towns to come up with creative solutions in the future because the path the school district is on is unsustainable. He said everyone will “have to find a way.”
Heath Selectboard member Gloria Fisher said she’s fearful of the proposed budget passing because she doesn’t know how the town will afford its assessment.
Buckland resident Alan Ross said he ran a nonprofit for 30 years and he thinks the district will have to start thinking the way nonprofits do — it will have to find private funding, creative funding, and use volunteers for some of its programs and services.
“We need new blood, new ideas,” Ross said. “We need to start making changes and harness new energy.”
School Committee members agreed with much the public had to say, and said they will consider all of the comments and suggestions as they move forward.
The committee will meet Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the superintendent’s conference room at Mohawk Trail Regional School to vote on the fiscal year 2021 budget. If the committee votes the proposed budget on Wednesday, it will go to each member town and be voted at each of their individual Annual Town Meetings.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.