Adams & ACRSD Prepare For School Deficit
Adams and regional school officials pondered how the economic difficulties in educating the community's children. |
ADAMS, Mass. — Adams-Cheshire Regional School District Officials are anticipating a $700,000 deficit next year.
"The costs are going up and the revenue is not meeting them," Superintendent Kristen Gordon told the Selectmen on Wednesday. "It just feels like every year we are in this $500,000, $600,000, or $800,000 hole without even adding anything."
Gordon and School Committee Chairman Paul Butler had attended the board's workshop meeting to provide an update on the fiscal 2017 budget. Gordon explained that between contract obligations, insurance increases, utility increases, and anticipated low Chapter 70 education funding, the district is broadly guessing that the deficit will be near $700,000.
Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco said he understood the district's difficulties and using very rough numbers anticipated that the town will be facing a similar $500,000 deficit in new expenses.
"Very quickly those numbers add up and those are the numbers people tend to look at and ask how you ended up $500,000 in the hole," Mazzucco said. "Well without doing anything, we are in the hole because the revenues aren't going up but the expenses are."
Gordon said she fears cutting any more from a budget that she feels is not educationally responsible. For example, she added, with a cut substitute budget, teachers are unable to take days off for professional development and students have to sit in multiple study halls a day. She said more cuts would make recess and cafeteria supervision difficult.
Selectmen Joseph Nowak agreed.
"They can't continue to cut staff, and they put on new teacher and they would be the first to go," Nowak said. "Then there would be a shyness from people to even apply for work in the district knowing that their job may be in jeopardy each budget round."
Gordon said the district operates very uncomfortably and does not have funding adequate for emergencies. If any student needs to be sent to another school or tutored for health or special education reasons, the district would have to look at immediate cuts.
"We can't live like that anymore," she said. "It is like having your furnace go and literally having nothing to use to replace it. It is like having that feeling all of the time … you don't want to live life like that."
Gordon did add that she does not want a contentious budget cycle like the last one and plans to enter the budget with a more positive and collaborative outlook.
She added the district will hold community forums starting Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at Hoosac Valley High School. The presentations will include the current calculated deficit and provide options for the district as well as pros and cons for each.
I really want to hear from the community," Gordon said. "This is really just a talk to see how the community is feeling ... this is your district, these are your kids, these are you schools, and you should have this opportunity."
She said the three current options are to do nothing and make more cuts, restructure the schools so all specific grade levels are in the same buildings, or close a school.
Gordon said restructuring may be the only option because the district has too many students to close a school and cutting any more would be "unsafe". She added restructuring would not save the district a lot of money but may be more educationally beneficial because all teaches of the same grade would be in the same building.
This option was brought up last year but received opposition from Cheshire parents who wanted to keep their kids in their community school. The same opposition was found when the district asked for feedback on the possibility of closing a school. Cheshire was not pinpointed, but is the smallest school with the most maintenance issues.
She said the district would be open to any other ideas as well.
Selectman John Duval asked if it would be beneficial to partly break apart the district and allow Adams to pay for C.T. Plunkett and Cheshire to pay for Cheshire Elementary. The towns would have a regional agreement with the high school. He said both towns seem to want to hold on to their community schools, and it may be a good way to move forward while the district finds a direction.
"Since we are at that point where we have to make bold choices that will impact the kids I just want to throw that out there," he said. "If Cheshire can pay for it they can keep their own school and if we can afford it we can keep our own school."
Mazzucco tossed out the idea that the Memorial Building could always be a school again and just needs an HVAC system. He recommended finding grant funds so an objective study to be conducted to see what the best buildings would be for the district to hold on to. He said the survey would show what buildings would work best as schools and save the most money and what could most likely be redeveloped.
"We don't want to keep Plunkett and close Cheshire if Plunkett is going to cost us $10 million in 10 years or vice versa," he said. "Or do we keep Cheshire if it is going to cost a fortune in capital to keep it up in running."
Duval advocated that a small group of school officials, School Committee members, and town officials from both towns be created to help brainstorm creative options and make recommendations.
Nowak added that he felt it would be best for Adams to combine with North Adams schools.
Gordon said if North Adams reached out she would definitely listen.
Chairman Richard Blanchard said eventually he thinks economics will force schools to really look at regionalization.
Tags: fiscal 2017, regionalization, school budget,