GREENFIELD — Now that the School Committee approved the public school’s 2018 budget and it awaits approval in the Town Council, it’s a good time to look deeper into the $18.7 million plan.

The overall budget increased by about 3 percent from this school year, but many schools will face administrative cuts and lower operating costs. Across the board, Greenfield public schools will see more than $500,000 in positions eliminated while $2 million worth of contracts are still up for negotiation.

In prior years, special education was funded by pre-payment allotments, which did not factor into the actual budget, but this year, Superintendent Jordana Harper and the School Committee plan is to adjust the system for better transparency. This change adds about $700,000 into the budget. In prior years it would have been added after the fact.

When adjusting for the shift in special education bookkeeping, the proposed budget is a 1 percent decrease from 2017.

In other words, Greenfield school board is proposing a level-funded budget.

At this point in the approval process of the school’s budget, there are 16 positions slated to end, accounting for $540,644. The average salary of these employees in 2017 was $33,790. Among these positions, two of them are teachers: a second-grade teacher at Newton School and a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher at Greenfield Middle School, which will see the inclusion of the Math and Science Academy in the fall.

The highest paid individual in the school system is the superintendent. Harper is scheduled to make $141,000, which is a $3,000 raise. An additional $90,000 will be paid to the assistant superintendent, whose primary job will be to administer curriculum development. The position originally did not appear in the budget, but the School Committee unanimously restsored it during deliberations.

The total operating cost for the central office and district operations is $2.5 million. This includes salaries like the superintendent’s and secretaries as well as professional development and parking lot costs. It is almost a $200,000 decrease from 2017.

Each school saw a decrease in its total budget except the Newton School, which essentially remained static. The greatest decrease came to the Discovery School with a $165,529 cut, which is about a 10.5 percent decrease from this year.

Reach Joshua Solomon at:

jsolomon@recorder.com

​413-772-0261, ext. 264