CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Adams Cheshire Regional School Committee will resubmit the same $19.2 million budget that was rejected by Cheshire town meeting last week.
The School Committee unanimously agreed Tuesday to support the original fiscal 2018 budget because members felt it presented the best educational outcomes and was the best option.
"If there is another option, we should have another series of budget meetings and if there isn't then we need go back and revisit the option we already brought forward and reaffirm it," school committee member Darlene Rodowicz said. "Unless we somehow find something else, but I don't want to be spending a lot of time just trying to be busy. We have done a lot of work on all of the options already."
The Cheshire annual town meeting last Monday rejected the budget that reflects the closing of the town's elementary school; this past Monday, Adams town meeting passed the budget.
At an Audit & Evaluation subcommittee meeting held before the regular School Committee meeting, Superintendent Robert Putnam said there had been a discussion on why the vote failed in Cheshire.
He said the feeling was that Cheshire residents did not want to see the school close, that they were upset about the failed amendment process to the regional agreement and that the conflict between Adams and Cheshire.
"We were trying to understand what the vote tells us because with that, we have to determine which way to go next with the budget," he said. "There was not one reason, there were multiple reasons for the failure of the budget."
Cheshire representative Adam Emerson added that he thought some people were just confused at town meeting.
"After talking with people there was some confusion. No. 1 with the way with the motion was made where a positive was the negative," he said. "I do know some people had approached me and said they did understand and it was emotional."
Rodowicz said to appease these concerns, they only have a few options keep all three schools open by either increasing the budget, which would likely trigger overrides in both communities, or cut out new student support positions and slice even deeper into the budget.
Rodowicz added that all options will still include co-locating grades, or putting the same grades in the same school, which would change the nature of both Plunkett and Cheshire. She said it is not economically or educationally beneficial to have two pre-K-through-Grade 5 buildings.
The School Committee members agreed they did not want to cut deeper into the classrooms and felt it would be difficult to pass a larger budget. Plus, if a larger budget is submitted Adams, it would have to hold another town meeting.
They agreed the student support positions were critical and did not want to continue the status quo.
Emerson added that the committee needs to inform the voters of the consequences of not passing a budget.
"We need to do a better job of persuading individuals to vote for it because of the timeline," he said. "I think the impacts and ramifications would have narrowed the vote."
Putnam said the School Committee is working against a deadline and that although the Department of Education has granted 45 days instead of 30 to reconsider the budget, it needs to have a budget in place for Cheshire's planned July 17 special town meeting.
After July 1, the start of the fiscal year, the state will revert the school district back to an incremental version of this year's budget until a new budget passed. This means less money for the district.
Also, Cheshire may not be able to certify its total budget with the state Department of Revenue without a certified school budget.
If a budget cannot be decided on in the second round of town meetings, a districtwide vote will held for all registered voters in both towns to have their say
If there is not a budget in place by Dec. 1, the state will take over the district.
