NORTHFIELD — Better communication is needed between the School Committee and the governing boards of the member towns of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, state officials said at a meeting on Thursday.
The joint meeting of the School Committee and the four member towns’ selectboards and finance committees was held “to plant a seed, so these types of meetings won’t be so unusual,” said Jay Sullivan, associate commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s School Finance and District Support Center.
The state officials emphasized the need for School Committee members to understand the district’s budget in greater detail than they currently do, ideally on the level of individual line item amounts and transfers, and to involve officials from the district’s member towns in budgetary planning.
Yet members of the towns’ selectboards and finance committees complained that the School Committee has not involved them, despite their efforts. Leyden Finance Committee Chairwoman Michelle Giarusso, who said she has been going to School Committee meetings for 30 years, said the School Committee has “never had a collaborative approach with the towns.”
“I was looking at that budget,” she said. “I saw where the problems were, and we never got heard.”
“We haven’t been absent at these meetings,” said Leyden Selectman Jeff Neipp. “But nobody’s listening for some reason.”
Christine Lynch, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s governance and facilities program manager, suggested that pertinent information be distributed to town officials in advance of School Committee meetings. Typically, information is distributed at the meeting itself, which Giarusso said forces School Committee members to make “on-the-spot decisions” without advice from town officials.
It was also suggested that the towns consider forming advisory committees to coordinate the School Committee and the towns on budgetary matters.
Yet the state officials were optimistic that the district’s new administrative team would make an effort to improve the relationship between administration, the towns and the School Committee.
“Transparency is definitely one of the goals of the new administration,” said district Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord.
The School Committee voted to authorize the hiring of a new kindergarten teacher for Northfield Elementary School.
Presently, Northfield Elementary School has one kindergarten teacher. There are 24 students already registered and more expected. Principal Megan Desmarais was concerned that the class would exceed its maximum size of 24 students.
Some School Committee members suggested that rather than hire another teacher, parents be asked whether they would be willing to send their children to one of the district’s other schools. Budget Subcommittee Chairman David Young said it would be “not efficient” to have two classes of 12 or 13 students when they could potentially be moved to another school instead.
But with the first day of the school year approaching, the committee chose to hire a new teacher rather than face a potential shortage of staff.
“We’re just acting like there’s no tomorrow,” Young said, referring to the committee’s financial decisions.