Mount Greylock School District Eyeing Override
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The school district is struggling with a shortfall fueled by losses in regional transportation funds, level funding of state Chapter 70 aid and a 9 percent increase in health premiums.
The $10.5 million budget — up $600,000 over this year — was presented to the Williamstown Finance Committee last Thursday (available for viewing on Willinet). The committee signaled both the likelihood of an override and a desire for more trimming.
School Committee Chairman David Archibald, however, said he believed the consensus was to move forward with the current numbers.
"This Proposition 2 1/2 override may not have any chance of success and the absolute value of the amount we ask for may make it less successful," said Archibald on Tuesday night's meeting. "Oh, we can make do. But we've been making do year after year after year."
If the school district gets an override vote this year, it won't get another one soon, he said. "This budget puts a tiny bit of flesh on the bones" that may not be the case in following years.
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Some $250,000 in school choice funds will be offset by the cost of out-of-district placements for nearly a dozen students. Special education costs are up by 18 percent.
As the budget currently stands, Lanesborough will see its assessment jump 15 percent, or $362,380, to $2.7 million. Williamstown is looking at an 11 percent hike, or $373,250, to $4.8 million.
Committee member Ronald Tinkham, a Lanesborough representative, said he felt an obligation to identify areas that could be cut.
"I think we need to the act as a team with the Finance Committee," he said. "Anything that's supported by the Williamstown Finance Committee has a better chance of getting approved."
When questioned, Superintendent William Travis said his highest priority would be maintaining staffing, his lowest technology with the exception of essential software updates.
"I don't think I can give you a top 10" with line items that could be mixed and matched for cutting, he said, and continued that to "cut $200,000 we may have to shave a little here and there; at $400,000 it may require real reorganization."
That could mean switching from seven periods to six, and reviewing athletic and educational programs to eliminate to the most expensive or the least utilized. Any reorganization could mean staffing cuts as well.
Committee member Jack Hickey said it was incumbent upon the board to set parameters of what was expected in terms of reductions.
"It's up to the school board to tell the administration that the budget he's presented tonight is unacceptable. We need to give him guidance," he said. "Telling him 'do the best you can' is shirking our responsibility."
Member Robert Ericson, too, said he would feel more confident on debating the merits of the budget sooner rather than later. "It'd be nice to have a heads up of what we're talking about before the issue is thrust upon us."
Travis was asked to assess the effects of cuts at around $200,000 and around $400,000. At least, said School Committee member Heather Williams, "so we can say without the override, this is what we'd lose."
The board set Thursday, April 1, as the date to vote on the budget; the earliest town meeting is Williamstown's on May 18. The budget will be presented to the Lanesborough Finance Committee on March 18.
Archibald said the board should begin planning for an override campaign.
"We've held our budget to zero for years," he said. "I think it's too early to back off that number."
In other business:
► Williams told the board a request for proposals for the siting of an AT&T cell tower in the southeast corner of the school property is awaiting counsel's review of the draft lease. Several items in the lease, such as a mechanism to negotiate a new lease once the previous one lapses, were missing or incomplete. There is also a question whether the school has a special rate for electricity on how that would affect the tower's power supply. Williams said answers to those questions were expected by Thursday.
► A new regional agreement between Williamstown and Lanesborough and the district drawn up over the last year is being reviewed by the state.
► The bonding process for repairs to the locker rooms and the replacing the heating boilers in the pipeline with expectation of having a bond anticipation note this spring.
