GREENFIELD — Presenting its fiscal year 2027 budget proposal Monday night, interim Superintendent Roland Joyal Jr. said the School Department is requesting a 7.4%, or roughly $1.7 million, increase to its budget.
Referencing Mayor Ginny Desorgher’s numerous warnings to city officials that health insurance cost increases of 19% will result in an “extraordinarily difficult” budget year, Joyal explained that he is aware the requested budget will need to see cuts.
“I don’t think anybody believes that we’re actually going to be granted all of this, [or that] this is all doable from the mayor’s presentation to City Council,” Joyal said. “There’s a reality factor, and we know that. While we’re presenting this tonight, this is what, in a perfect world — everything rolling over, plus a couple additions — would be in the budget.”
The proposed $25.46 million budget, Joyal said, prioritizes curriculum items such as “high-quality instructional materials,” new literacy interventions for students who are in need of more “intensive” support, social and emotional learning curriculum, and investments in anti-bullying programs such as Federal Street School’s restorative justice pilot. He said the budget also aims to “maintain and expand” the School Department’s art and music programs, and ensure program accessibility for all students.
The budget’s staffing priorities, Joyal explained, include an effort to shrink class sizes, maintain a fully staffed school with full-time employees rather than contractors and consider necessary resources to fill needs for substitute teachers.
“There’s nothing I want less than to hire somebody from an outside vendor when we’re paying a premium for that, and they could just apply directly to us,” Joyal said. “Unfortunately, in some cases, we don’t have that choice to put people in, but we’re making every effort not to do that.”
Among the more costly expenditures that are responsible for budgetary increases, Joyal explained, are out-of-district special education tuition costs, which he said increased by $607,000, or 19%, along with an approximately $233,000, or 21%, increase in special education transportation.
Joyal added that this past fiscal year saw the restoration of two vacant positions — an English language learning teacher at Federal Street School and a float custodian — which also contributed to the budget increase.
Discussing grant funding sources for the district, Joyal explained that he expects to only receive 80% of what was allocated for the district in the Title I federal grant funds in FY26. He said revenue collected from School Choice, circuit breaker funding, special education tuition and transportation revolving accounts only amount to an expected 0.52%, or $22,455, increase.
“Assistant Superintendent [Stephen] Sullivan and I were on a call a week or so ago with the state commissioner. It does not look like Title I is going to be fully funded, maybe at about an 80% funding. That’s going to be a big hit,” Joyal said. “Those numbers haven’t come out yet, but they’re asking all cities and towns across the state to budget 80% of what they received this year, and you’ll see some of the other grants and some are not competitive each year. … The increase [in alternative revenue] is very small. They’re at half a percent.”
In the School Committee’s discussions about the budget, member Elizabeth DeNeeve urged the community to rally against the state’s private health insurance industry, vowing support for single-payer health care in Massachusetts.
“Private health care is taking your child’s education. So if the Greenfield brain trust that I know exists here can put as much energy as possible, as citizens, to working on universal health care … now’s the time, because this is just going to get worse every year,” DeNeeve said. “What is it going to be next year? A 30% increase? It’s just never going to stop, and it has to start now, not when the budget is about to be signed. We need to do it now. If you have been wanting to throw your hat into local government or help us, do that. Send us emails, talk to us, take all the energy you put into the town Facebook page and direct it to Boston.”
In response to Sullivan stating that the district is taking a roughly 30% chunk out of its reserve funds, Joyal explained that the district aims to secure long-term sustainable funding to prevent drying up its reserves.
“These accounts are out there for rainy days. We know it’s raining … but you build up some of those [rainy days],”Joyal said. “Not too many of us can remember some good times, when we’ve been able to put some some money away in the bank account, but now we’re spending that account, and there’s not many years left of that.”
School Committee member Ann Childs announced that the Budget & Finance Subcommittee will discuss the budget again at its next meeting on Monday, March 23. She encouraged members of the community to reach out the School Committee if they have any questions or comments about the budget.