MONTAGUE — As the Gill-Montague Regional School District begins to revise its budget for fiscal year 2026, figures presented during Tuesday’s School Committee meeting show a $1.3 million shortfall.

While the deficit and the budget numbers are all preliminary, Tuesday served as an opportunity for the full committee to get a look at early figures, presented by Director of Business and Operations Joanne Blier and Superintendent Brian Beck.

The shortfall comes from the proposed expenditures general fund sitting at $26.47 million, with projected increases coming from a 10% insurance increase at $616,000, out-of-district placements costing $115,171, an increase in out-of-district transportation for special education services at $157,271, and 10 proposed new staff positions costing $540,000. The all funds budget of $29.97 million represents a 8.3% increase compared to fiscal year 2025.

As for the projected revenue, increasing by 3% compared to FY25, the amount sits at nearly $25.16 million, with two exclusions. The Transportation Revolving Fund is not being factored into this proposed budget due to a lack of funds from an anticipated fiscal year 2025 deficit. Additionally, pandemic-era funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) concluded in September 2024, and thus is not included in FY26 figures.

“While we have used the Transportation Revolving Fund for several years now, it must be funded through a prior year surplus, which we are not anticipating at this time due to overages in [special education out-of-district tuition], transportation and contracted services,” Blier’s report from Jan. 14 reads.

Additionally, Chapter 70 state school aid won’t be released until Jan. 22, leaving some gray area as to what the aid will look like. The town assessment figures for Montague and Gill will be formalized after the governor’s budget is released.

In the proposed budget, the estimated Chapter 70 figure sits at $703,488 more than the current year’s budget, accounting for the district enrollment staying relatively flat and with hopes the Student Opportunity Act could allow for additional aid. Between the contributions from Gill and Montague, town assessments under the preliminary budget would be increasing by $458,980, or 3.3%.

Even factoring in a projected increase of the Chapter 70 aid and the projected increased assessments, the deficit still won’t be covered as the preliminary budget is set up now, Blier explained.

“Once we take everything into consideration that we had brought to us for the budget and our revenue estimates, we are out of balance by $1.3 million,” Blier said.

On Jan. 21, the School Committee will hold a working session to go through the budget line by line. The preliminary budget will then be discussed further and head to a vote on Jan. 28, with those figures then being sent to a public hearing on Feb. 11. Because the state aid figures will be released on Jan. 22, the budget on the Jan. 28 will have a more finalized set of numbers. A final vote, solidifying the budget that will head to Annual Town Meetings in Gill and Montague, will be held on March 11.

In a Dec. 3, 2024, School Committee meeting, Blier explained the district is facing an estimated $278,473 deficit by the end of FY25, which members of the committee inquired about during Tuesday’s meeting to get an update. Blier and Beck said they’ve had the chance to get on top of some of the extra expenses and they are still working to understand the scope of the issue.

“I’m still working really hard to get that under control,” Blier said when School Committee member Wendy Thompson asked for an update. “We’ve managed to resolve some, but there are a few out there that we want to get on top of,” Beck added.

School Committee member Carol Jacobs asked what those expenses are, to which Beck and Blier replied there are some out-of-district expenses, as well as expenses for transportation and related services. Beck said the spending, rather than being characterized as wasteful, comes from inefficiencies that could’ve been noticed earlier, and there needs to be better communication internally about spending.

Part of the issue of these extra expenses that Blier initially expressed in December, and again during Tuesday’s meeting, is there needs to be better procedural knowledge about spending. Her Dec. 3 Business and Operations Report explains the need for better spending procedures and reporting, stating, “The present practices of finding invoices only after does not allow me to properly manage the budget, leaving me on clean-up duty instead of proper monitoring.”

A copy of the preliminary FY26 budget is available at gmrsd.org/welcome-gmrsd/school-committee, under the Jan. 14 agenda and packet.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.