North Adams School Committee OKs $16.4M Budget
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee last week passed a fiscal 2016 budget of $16,415,800 that affects more than a dozen positions.
Overall, the budget is up $321,880, or about 2 percent, over this year. But Chapter 70 funding only increased by $30,900 over this year. The city is "hovering" around the minimum contribution required by law.
"As we went through this budget, I think we are able to provide adequate, appropriate services to all students," Superintendent James Montepare told the committee at Wednesday's public hearing. "We had to make some hard decisions and hard choices ... the budget is indicative to those cuts."
The budget will reduce 10 1/2 teaching positions, however, because of retirements, only 2 1/2 positions will be eliminated. A number of other posts will be moved around in large part because of the redistribution of the student body with the opening of Colegrove Park Elementary School this fall, and 1 1/2 professional posts and one nonprofessional pasts will be reduced.
Among the cuts is the home economics courses at Drury High School and their teacher, Judith Moitozo.
Moitozo, who has been teaching at the school for 17 years, made an impassioned plea to the School Committee on the importance of the family and consumer science curriculum. The courses provide grounding in life skills, cooking and nutrition, and child care, among other topics, designed to prepare young people for career and parenting past high school.
"Home economics is valuable to any curriculum and I'm proud to say North Adams has been a supporter for so long," Moitozo said. "It is definitely investing in the future of our kids."
Her efforts were supported by Valerie Schwarz of the Berkshire Food Project, as well as by two parents of former students who had written letters on her behalf.
"I believe home economics is a critical piece in a child's education," Schwarz said. "We're in a service economy, we're not industrial any more. What the students learn in her class will enable them to get jobs in our community."
Moitozo believed 173 students, or more than 40 percent of the student body, had indicated interest in taking the classes but there were scheduling issues. Montepare, who described Moitozo as a "loyal, hard working teacher," said the numbers had been dropping with only about 26 signing up this past session. However, he said he would look further into the figures.
The reductions include 4 1/2 other high school positions, including an art teacher, who will be placed elsewhere in the school system. Several teaching positions from Brayton are also being eliminated because of the opening of Colegrove Park and the redistricting that will create more equitable classroom sizes in all three elementary schools.
The new school will require a new dean of students. Several posts, including a school psychologist, will be moved to so-called circuit breaker funds to develop an in-house intensive special education program to save money. A number of teaching assistants salaries will be covered by grant funding.
What will not be used in the fiscal 2016 budget is school choice funds. Some $400,000 was already allocated for salaries this year and Montepare last month asked for another $200,000 for unexpected special education residential placement costs.
That will leave the school choice account at about $295,000 going into fiscal 2016; using it for next school budget would significantly deplete the account.
"At the end of the year, that money would be gone and we would be in such a critical situation that I don't know if we could sustain our budget and our services," Montepare said. "We would be in a crisis situation. We are in a crisis situation now."
Mayor Richard Alcombright, chairman of the committee, said the budget is being based on "what we get, not what we might have."
"This is about as painful as it's gotten with the school budget," he said. "This has been funded at 2 percent every year and the unfortunate piece of this is the school system is where the city was three cycles ago.
"We just don't have the ability to generate revenue as fast as our expenses are growing. To utilize our reserves even one more year would put us in a situation where we would have even deeper cuts."
The Finance Committee will review the budget on Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
North Adams School Budget 2016 by iBerkshires.com
Tags: fiscal 2016, school budget,
