Adams-Cheshire Committee Continues to Pare Down Budget
CHESHIRE, Mass. — School officials are continuing to whittle away at the $19 million spending plan for fiscal 2017. The budget already reflects more than a dozen staffing cuts and is coming in some $110,000 under this year.
The Audit and Evaluation Committee is hoping to find more savings that can translate into retaining teachers.
"We have to look at this and compile a list to look at and decide how much of this do we really want to cut to the bone," School Committee member Darlene Rodowicz said at Monday's meeting. "I think we would like to restore a few teachers if we could."
The principals from the three schools offered up a 20 percent cut to general supplies and reductions to instruction supplies.
"We are looking at this for one year and kind of knowing that there will be bigger plans happening the following year," Cheshire Elementary Principal Peter Bachli said. "So these things we may have to look to bring back after we tough it out for a year."
The subcommittee also looked at the secretary overtime budget. The line item mostly funds substitutes.
Rodowicz said offering flexible or comp time could be used instead of budgeting for overtime.
"We can say they have an eight-hour shift and if they have to stay late the next day, we can send them home early and not have to pay overtime," she said. "We have $7,100 of extra hours ... that is a lot of money for people that are calling out sick."
Business Manager David Hinkell said the committee should be careful of carving out all contingencies from the budget because it will reduce the district's reserves. The budget used $350,000 from reserves and if that amount is not there at the end of the school year, the district will not have it in the future.
"I want to be careful. We have always had a very heathy [excess and deficiency funds] at the end of the year and that is because we have always built contingencies into the budget," Hinkell said. "We have already made some huge cuts … to get the budget to this level and it is going to have an impact."
Hoosac Valley's Athletic Director Michael Heneault found some potential savings that would allow the school to maintain its sports programs. He suggested placing a salary cap on coaching positions and possibly eliminating postseason stipends. This would have to be negotiated with the teachers' union.
"They would much rather see their postseason stipend go away than lose a coach or a program," he said. "I know that if we had this ready, they would all sign it and there would be unanimous support."
He also urged the committee to keep the strength and conditioning program, saying with some coaching cuts and other changes in the budget, the school should be able to maintain the program.
"As a standalone program it serves more students than any other athletic program at Hoosac right now," Heneault said. "They started working with the boys basketball team last year ... It helped lead to the success of making it to the state championship."
He added that the booster clubs may help support the program.
Tags: ACRSD_budget, fiscal 2017,
