ADAMS, Mass. — The regional school district is facing a gaping deficit of between $500,000 and $1 million in the next fiscal year because revenues are not keeping up with costs.

Adams-Cheshire Superintendent Kristen Gordon laid out the difficulties of next year's school budget to the Maple Grove Civic Club on Sunday afternoon, telling the group that a more accurate deficit number will be announced at a community forum originally scheduled for late November, but now postponed until after the holidays.  

"We want to talk about this with people in Adams and Cheshire and see what they want the district to look like," Gordon said. "Last year was a very difficult budget process and this year is not going to be easier."

Gordon said part of the problem is the nonnegotiable utility, salary and health insurance increases. These increases are not met by outside revenues, increased funding from the towns, or Chapter 70 education funds from the state.

Adams-Cheshire relies heavily on Chapter 70 funds that last year only increased $25 per student.

"I want to say our district is the one that relies on Chapter 70 the heaviest," she said. "If we are not the top, we are the second district. It is not staying in pace with the costs."

She said the forum will look at three major options to address these budget shortfalls: make more significant cuts, restructure the district and eliminate some teachers, or close a school.  

"These are some of the issues we are going to have to face as communities," Gordon said.

Club Vice President Jeffrey Lefebvre asked Gordon about standardized test scores that have decreased over the past few years.

Gordon said the area has many low-income families, and it is more expensive to teach low-income students because they often do not have the same resources as middle and upper-class families do.

She said this is true throughout the county and more wealthy areas such as Williamstown and Lenox, which can provide more funding to their schools, are known to score higher. She said North Adams, Adams-Cheshire, and Pittsfield score lower.

Many of the state mandates and policies create discrimination and separates students into low, middle, and upper income categories, she said.

"I have been very frustrated because I feel with a lot of this testing and all of the state mandates, that the state is creating some of the worst kinds of discrimination that we have seen in a long time," Gordon said.

Lefebvre also cited a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education report that stated that the district does too much in house and should try to bring in teachers and administration from the outside.

Gordon said the district always tries to pick the best candidate no matter where they are from, but sometimes receives a limited applicant field because they cannot offer competitive salaries.

As for scores, she said the district is hit hardest at C.T. Plunkett Elementary because the class sizes are so large that it is hard to prepare the kids for a standardized test.

"When you have 27 kids in a second grade class those scores are not going to go up," Gordon said. "They can work as hard as they possibly can, but when you have 27 students in a class it is not going to work."

She said North Adams Public Schools saw a similar issue and after lowering class sizes test scores increased — Adams-Cheshire cannot afford to do this.

Some members brought up their own years in the school system and said some of their classes had nearly 40 kids in them.

Gordon replied that there was no standardized state testing then, no leveling of schools that can decrease funding, no state-mandated standards, and teachers had fewer responsibilities.  

"Anyone can handle 30 kids, and that is not the problem. The problem is teaching them," she said. "They are great kids, they are wonderful, and they are well behaved but you have to teach them."

Gordon added that because some students took the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test and others took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test, the state will not relevel the school this year. The state had been considering switching to PARCC but DESE has decided to create a new MCAS test instead.

Currently Adams-Cheshire is a level 3 district, meaning not enough students are advancing. If it drops to a level 4, the state gets involved.

Lefebvre asked if Gordon if she planned to present another budget that would mean a Proposition 2 1/2 override, saying many homeowners cannot afford increased taxes.

Cheshire this year approved an override on a second vote to fund $90,000 of its assessment; if it had failed, it would have triggered another $260,000 reduction in Adams' assessment.

Gordon said she felt that if she did not advocate for the override she would not be doing her job.

"If I just crunched that money and cut teachers I just didn't feel like I was doing my job," she said. "I felt like if I didn't do that and fight for the override I was simply putting my head in the sand."

She added that she did not plan for another override but the towns need to figure out what kind of education they want for their kids.

"I have fought you for three years, now it is your turn to decide what kind of education you want to see," Gordon said.