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Pittsfield School Committee Accepts Increased Chapter 70 Spending Plan

The School Committee set a spending plan for an extra $1.3 million increase in state funding that it hadn't anticipated Monday night. The plan is eyed to benefit the middle and elementary schools as well as alternative programs.

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Clarksburg School Declines North Adams Food Service Proposal

The School Committee voted 2-1 last week to decline an offer from the North Adams Public Schools' Food Service Department to take over the cafeteria

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North Adams School Committee Approves Budget, Academy Changes

Some $265,000 in school choice funds is being used to offset the budget, bringing the total down to $17.769 million. That represents an increase of $348,414 over this year, or 2 percent.

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McCandless Shrinks Pittsfield School Budget Request

Superintendent Jason McCandless is scaling back his budget request by about a half million dollars. McCandless said he had a meeting with Mayor Linda Tyer and Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood since revealing his initial request for a $3.4 million increase to the budget and the three agreed to a lesser number. Particularly, McCandless said the number of new positions, mostly new paraprofessionals, is being scaled back.

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Lanesborough Gets First Look at Mount Greylock Budget

The town is being asked to spend about $64,000 more this year to support the schools.

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Mount Greylock School Committee Amends Budget to Preserve Music Instruction

After hearing from several teachers at the elementary and high school level who argued against the cut, the six members of the seven-person panel in attendance voted unanimously to restore about $6,000 to the $22.4 million gross operating budget for the three-school, PreK-12 district.

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McCandless Asks 5.7 Percent Increase for Pittsfield Schools

Superintendent Jason McCandless is asking for a $3.4 million increase to the school's budget. The large 5.7 percent increase comes as Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed a budget that gives the city $3.7 million more in Chapter 70 state aid for schools. The request comes with a number of new initiatives and positions which McCandless said will bolster specific areas the district has identified as problematic areas.

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Adams-Cheshire School Committee Approves 2020 Budget

The Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee voted Monday to certify a fiscal 2020 budget of $20,099,487 that represents a 1.77 percent increase.

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Mount Greylock School Committee Prepares Fiscal 2020 Budget

The Mount Greylock Regional School District budget is tracking to deliver a 2.5 percent increase in its operating budget assessment to the town of Williamstown and a 2.2 percent hike to Lanesborough.

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Adams-Cheshire Considers $20M Budget for Fiscal 2020

A public hearing on the budget was held last week and the School Committee is expected to vote on the budget next week.

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Pittsfield Schools Projecting Surplus But With Areas of Concern

Tuition payments are down significantly this year but the savings is being eaten up by other areas of the school budget. Deputy Superintendent Kristin Behnke provided the School Committee with a mid-year budget report on Wednesday. The good news is that the trend appears to a show a surplus at the end of the year, thanks to the tuition savings and other under budget trending lines.

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McCann School Committee Endorses $9.6M Budget for Fiscal 2020

The committee members had few questions about what Superintendent James Brosnan referred to as "vanilla" fiscal 2020 budget that will increase by $220,769.

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North Adams School Committee Approves FY2019 Budget

The School Committee on Monday approved a $17.7 million budget for fiscal 2019 that is up just under 2 percent from this year. The City Council is expected to approve the school budget Tuesday night as part of the city's overall spending plan for fiscal 2019.

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North Adams Superintendent Up for Second Evaluation

In other business last week, the committee appointed Boulger and Chairman and Mayor Thomas Bernard to the Shared Services Subcommittee made up of the Northern Berkshire school districts. The creation of this subcommittee came out of the discussions of possibly sharing a superintendent with the Adams-Cheshire Regional School district.

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