Williamstown Elementary Finances in Good Shape

Above, School Committee members Chairwoman Margaret McComish, left, and Valerie Hall at Wednesday's meeting, at which the committee went over the final spending numbers for this year. Right, School Business Director Lynn Bassett said there is an expected gain in the revolving fund.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — With Mother's Day just around the corner, Williamstown Elementary School officials Wednesday were thanking Mother Nature.

At its monthly meeting, the School Committee took a look at how its fiscal 2013 budget is faring. And the news was all good, mostly because the relatively mild winter helped the school district save significantly on its heating bills.

"Seeing what you're seeing now, does it look like we'll be taking less from the revolving funds at the end of the year?" committee member Valerie Hall asked district Business Director Lynn Bassett.

"Yes, there probably will be some excess," Bassett replied.

The revolving funds — the equivalent of a municipality's "free cash" — are a surplus account that the school district normally might use to close gaps in the budget.

But if the fiscal year ending June 30 continues as it has through the first three quarters, the district will be able to keep its budget in balance, said Bassett, who is taking over the school's accounts for David Donoghue at the Auburn-based management firm TMS.

The numbers showed the district saved more than $30,000 on its line item for natural gas. And it picked up another $7,500 from its projected expenditure for electricity.

Superintendent Rose Ellis credited the latter savings to greater efficiency at the school.

"We're seeing those savings in electricity because we're working with the town, working personally with (Public Works Director) Tim Kaiser representing the town," Ellis told the committee. "They're doing some tremendous work in our building on small things, mechanicals. ... The building is getting greener and greener."

One of the committee's main tasks Wednesday night was approving adjustments to the budget that Bassett outlined. Although the bottom line looks good for the fiscal year, numerous sums had to be moved from one area to another, she explained.

The area with the most notable shortfall was in special education, where an entire position was inadvertantly left off the budget at a cost of $25,000. The money is there to cover the expense, but the committee members requested that the FY14 budget be re-examined to make sure the expense is accounted for in the spending plan voters will be asked to adopt later this month at town meeting.

"If not, you can come back to the School Committee and proactively get it changed," Committee Chairwoman Margaret McComish told Ellis, Bassett and Director of Pupil Personnel Services Kim Grady.

The committee Wednesday had a full agenda, which included reports from Ellis and Principal Joelle Brookner as well as consideration of the school's 2013-14 calendar.

The panel chose to delay a decision on the schedule until the district finalizes contract negotiations with its teachers. The administration is aiming to get the school year started before Labor Day, but right now it does not know exactly when teachers will be back in the building, Ellis said.

In addition to focusing on the committee's own business, it heard a report from the district's representatives to the Regional District Agreement Committee — the group charged with exploring an expansion of the Mount Greylock Regional School District to include its two "feeder" elementary schools, Williamstown and Lanesborough.

A worker from Cheshire's Grady & Jennings Concrete puts the finishing touches on a new sidewalk intended to change the flow of pedestrian traffic from the nearby student drop-off.

McComish, who serves on the RDAC with School Committee member Dan Caplinger and Ellis, said the committee plans a public information session at the high school on Tuesday, June 18, at 5:30 p.m. The committee already has held a number of smaller outreach sessions in the community, but the June 18 event is designed to draw a larger audience as the RDAC fine tunes the proposal it plans to put to the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee within the next few months.

If the junior-senior high school committee is in favor of expansion, it ultimately would put the question of a merger to the voters in each of the towns in question.

In other business on Wednesday, Ellis reported to the School Committee that she does not plan to immediately replace the Tri-District's coordinator of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Mary MacDonald has served in that capacity since last summer but this month was named the next principal at Mount Greylock.

MacDonald's position was shared among the three schools in the Tri-District, Mount Greylock, WES and Lanesborough Elementary School.

Elllis said there are a couple of reasons not to fill the position immediately.

"The fact that [Brookner] and Ellen [Boshe], the principal of LES, have worked so closely with [MacDonald] means that things are in place," Ellis said. "I feel we'd like to put that position on hold for the time being and consider it for next spring.

"Those are really difficult positions to fill. We'd like to be thoughtful about rolling that position out again.

Brookner agreed that MacDonald's initiatives would continue even if she is not immediately replaced.

"Her position has been a great addition to professional development and communication between the three schools," Brookner said. "The systems are in place, and I'm confident that will continue.

"Even without that position next year, I think we'll be on a really good track."

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