PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee finalized Wednesday a $60.94 million budget for fiscal 2017. 

 

The School Committee adopted the proposal late last month, asking for some minor changes. The increase is some $1.7 million more than last year, or 2.91 percent, cutting about a half of a million from the previous version.

 

The city's appropriation is slightly less, at $60.3 million, $1,813,585 more than last year, which is 3.1 percent higher than this year. 

 

Superintendent Jason McCandless had called for a 3.7 percent increase but Mayor Linda Tyer urged the staff to find a middle ground between that and a 2.5 percent increase. McCandless returned to the School Committee with a number closer to 2.5, and the committee amended it from the floor to add back in a few positions back in.

 

Business Director Kristen Behnke added those positions — a dean of students for Allendale School and a districtwide attendance coordinator — back. A debated $20,000 for the summer school program was also kept. The final piece the School Committee wanted was career coordinators, which Behnke said is not funded.

 

"We are looking closely at the career counselors," Behnke said, adding that the district is actively looking for grants to pay for the positions or how to compile pieces of already awarded grant money to fund them.

 

McCandless said the changes made at the April meeting was a rarity in the dozen or so school budgets he's ever proposed. He feels the School Committee did its best job at fulfilling its charge of presenting the best budget for the students.

 

But, that doesn't mean the City Council will agree to fund it all.

 

Following that meeting, the School Committee joined the City Council to hear a presentation about the city's precarious financial position. McCandless said that meeting shed light on the situation but he felt there was support among other city officials. 

 

"We will get through this. It will not be without pain. It will not be without hiccup. But there is a spirit of 'we will all get through this together,'" McCandless said.

 

He added that he feels education is supported by city officials on all levels but that "heart-wrenching and gut-wrenching decisions" have to be made because of the city's financial position.

 

"There is a limit to even what the best intended people can do," McCandless said.

 

On Wednesday, School Committee Chairwoman Kathleen Yon sat in on the first "budget summit" held by Tyer. The mayor brought all of the department heads together to discuss the budgets and will craft a plan for the City Council to review and ultimately adopt. Tyer doesn't have the ability to cut the school budget in that proposal but the City Council does have that authority.