For the second night in a row, parents expressed concerns that the lean budget being presented by Mount Greylock Regional is not educationally adequate.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Tuesday night decided to ask its administration to develop a prioritized list of up to five items that it would most like to see added back to the fiscal 2016 budget.

 

For the second straight night, the School Committee heard feedback from residents challenging the cuts included in the current $10.5 million spending plan.

 

On Monday, the committee held a public hearing at Lanesborough Elementary School. On Tuesday, it held its annual public hearing in the regional school district's other town — a hearing timed to precede the committee's regular monthly meeting.

 

The budget presented both nights called for a .85 percent increase in the bottom line from FY15. Since costs beyond the district's control would have driven the budget up by 8.7 percent, the less than 1 percent increase proposed was made possible through a number of difficult budget cuts.

 

During both public hearings, residents from both towns stressed the impact those cuts would have on students. Everything from the school's music program to its cooperative swim team with St. Joseph to the elimination of the digital media specialist were championed by residents identifying themselves as parents of Mount Greylock students.

 

Picking up on an argument raised by School Committee member Chris Dodig on Monday night, Williamstown Selectman Hugh Daley spoke from the floor of Tuesday's meeting.

 

"Ask for the money you need," Daley said. "Don't shortchange this set of kids coming in to make sure you get the building project."

 

On Monday, Dodig said he was concerned the School Committee was going too far to appease budget hawks in Lanesborough in an effort to maintain political support down the road. The district last year began a feasibility study in the Massachusetts School Building Authority program to look at options for the aging, inadequate school building.

 

On Tuesday, School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene responded to those concerns.

 

"The building is a long-term investment in our communities," she said. "With any luck, at the pace we're going, a new or renovated building could be open in the fall of 2018. I don't think of it as way in the future, but I take your point.

 

"The students in the building now are the ones we need to focus on in terms of education. If I had any doubts [about that] ... I wouldn't support the budget. Other folks may have doubts, but I have confidence that what the administration is proposing will work for our students now."

 

Committee members Gary Fuls and Wendy Penner agreed.

 

"When we're trying to figure out budgets and cuts, my decision was based on what [Principal] Mary MacDonald and [interim Superintendent Gordon] Noseworthy told us," Fuls said. "I knew the kids weren't being compromised. That's where my decisions came from. We didn't compromise the kids."

 

"Sitting through these meetings, I felt reassured," Penner said. "I haven't in this process felt personally that we were harming our ability to meet the educational needs of students in a robust way. I formed that opinion based on guidance from Mary and Gordon, and I think they've been very convincing."

 

Penner went a step further, noting that a building project and better educational opportunities are intrinsically related

 

"Our building needs are compromising the educational mission of the school," she said. "If people don't understand that, they haven't been fully engaged in all the challenges that the school has encountered around the building.

 

"I want to respond to the sentiment that somehow addressing the building needs is competing with the educational focus. To my mind, that is inaccurate."

 

Nevertheless, the committee put off a final decision on the budget proposal it will send to the towns by the end of the month in time for the annual town meeting warrants.

 

The committee did not actually vote on the budget but instead followed a suggestion from Dodig to ask the administration to come back with a "wish list" for the committee to consider at a special meeting on Monday, March 23.

 

Initially, Richard Cohen of Lanesborough moved to approve the .85 percent budget with one line item added: the 5:15 late bus.

 

"I can't think of something, when you look 20 years ahead, that would have as much impact on students' lives ... than making sure that students of all backgrounds have the opportunity to participate in all cocurriculars," Cohen said.

 

Mount Greylock student Ben Burdick shows the School Committee a stained-glass project that was created to honor former Superintendent Rose Ellis that will be displayed in the school's hallway near the Tri-District office Ellis once occupied.

Cohen noted that restoring that specific item to the budget would resonate with Lanesborough voters, implying that it would help even if the budget required a Proposition 2 1/2 override. Town officials have told Mount Greylock that such an override would be possible if the school's assessment came in with more than 1 percent increase.

 

The .85 budget would mean a projected 3.2 percent increase in Lanesborough (about 23 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value) and a 4.3 percent increase in Williamstown (about 22 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value).

 

Williamstown is offering its other town departments — including the elementary school — a 2.5 percent budget increase in the budget currently making its way through the town's Finance Committee.

 

Cohen eventually withdrew his motion to approve the .85 percent budget plus $33,000 for the late bus, and the committee agreed to hear suggested additions from Noseworthy and MacDonald next Monday.

 

"It remains an option to come back to the budget we're sitting on," Dodig said. "It remains an option to come back to this budget plus the late bus. It remains an option to add the late bus plus technology.

 

"My parameters would be to come in with your top five things you would add to this budget. We're probably not going to add more than $50,000 or $75,000, but I'd give you leeway to propose up to $200,000. But I'm only one member."

 

In other business on Tuesday night, the School Committee received an update on the tuition rate the junior-senior high school district charges the towns of Hancock and New Ashford. Last year, Mount Greylock negotiated a five-year series of increases designed to ensure that rate matches the actual cost per student at the school.

 

In FY15, that cost per student is $13,155. With a 5 percent increase in place for next year, the tuition rate will be $12,506, a difference of $649 or about 4.9 percent of the cost per student.