Adams-Cheshire Facing Significant Cuts, Job Losses

The School Committee is preparing for tough budget decisions this year.

ADAMS, Mass. — The Adams-Cheshire Regional School District is preparing for cuts that could eliminate up to 28 positions.

School Committee Chairwoman Darlene Rodowicz said both the committee and the towns' selectmen have tough decisions ahead of them.

"It is going to be another tough year and the increases … are far outpacing what the town's feel that they can fund in the budget," Rodowicz said. "We will have to make some tough decisions one way or the other and figure out what our priorities are in the two communities."

The School Committee met Monday night with Superintendent Kristen Gordon and discuss hearings for the draft budget of more than $19 million.

Rodowicz said the committee can either alter the budget or propose a budget the towns say they cannot afford. She said if this happens, the towns can either make other cuts to compensate or trigger a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote.

Gordon said if the district has to cut anymore they will have to cut much needed positions.

"I think people will see we can't continue to just cut and cut and cut," Gordon said. "The reality is if we have to cut what the towns think they can give us, we are talking about 25 positions."

Gordon said cuts like this will not support the current district structure.

Committee member Edmund St. John IV said losing that many people is "sickening" and that the district cannot improve without more support.

"We have to do that year after year, and we have been told this is what you are going to get for a budget and we have had to make cuts," St. John said. "We are expected to do better as a district and we can't."

He said the continued cutbacks do not allow the hiring of the supplementary positions needed to improve test scores that continue to hurt the district. He said he felt funding has to be raised to a more appropriate level.

"If we are to have any pride in our district, we have to raise our standards and raise what we feel is acceptable to fund our schools," he said. "We are the lowest funded district in the county per pupil, and in order to raise our own quality of education, we have to find more support and that support comes from the towns."

Committee members Stephen Vigna and Brian Astorino urged parents and community members to go to budget meetings and support the budget.

"I just ask that the community is very loud in both Adams and Cheshire and that they go to the meetings and support our district," Astorino said. "Let our town leaders know we appreciate the help, but we need more."

Committee member Joshua Demarsico-Birkland said restructuring the school district would help save many of those much-needed positions. Every year that the district makes cuts it move further away from the needed reading and math coach positions, he said.

"Every year we cut more and more and what we need to be doing for the students is to add services," Demarsico-Birkland said. "We are not trying to restructure so we can close the gap, but restructure so we can get the positions we need and every day without these positions is a day lost."

Last month, the district proposed restructuring the schools so that Cheshire Elementary would act as a dedicated early childhood center and C.T. Plunkett as the district's elementary school.

Gordon recommended tabling the restructuring until after the budget because it is too important to not pay full attention to.

"We have a really tough budget situation coming up no matter how we look a t it," she said. "I think we are all aware we don't want to put something as important as restructuring with something as important as the budget."

Gordon said the proposed restructuring model is not written in stone and she wants to create focus groups with parents, community members, and teachers so they can collaborate on what the future of the district will be.

"I would say focus on the budget for now, put the parents at rest for a while, and then get some focus groups together and really take a look at what the future of this district looks like," she said. "We knew it will have to be something different although we are not sure what that is at the moment."

Gordon said she also went to a meeting recently with state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, to discuss budget difficulties.

She said Downing and Cariddi advocated for consolidation wherever possible. Gordon questioned why so many districts in the state have received funding for new schools when there is a focus on consolidation.

"Even though their goal was to consolidate just about every district in the Berkshires has received funding for a new school over the past five years or forthcoming," she said.

Gordon said she is happy districts are building new schools but wishes opportunities for consolidation were looked at beforehand.

She said the representatives said they would look into more funding for technology and needed administrative positions such as a curriculum coordinator.

"We brought some things to their attention, and they may not have been aware of the nitty-gritty of what happens in small school districts like ours," Gordon said. "They couldn't make any promises, but they are both huge supporters of education."

Gordon said charter schools were also discussed and their impact on the district. She said she believes students should have the choice of a charter school but the current formula costs Adams-Cheshire $700,000. She said that money would close the budget gap.

Gordon also said the school was recently visited by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for a program review. They interviewed teachers, students, selectmen, administrators, and others and visited 90 percent of the classrooms.

Gordon said they praised the commitment of staff, staff support, high level of respect in the classroom, and creative out-of-the-box thinking among other accolades.

Gordon said they were also praised for "resolute determination in the face of fiscal adversary and the staff has a survivalist mentality even under financial stress."

She said they strongly recommended hiring a curriculum coordinator and a technology director. They said these would be mandated if they could mandate positions and they recommended laying off staff to accommodate these. Gordon said the positions were written into the budget. 

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