Cheshire Sees McCann Budget for Fiscal 2019

CHESHIRE, Mass. —  Cheshire officials offered no objections to McCann Technical School's $9.3 million for fiscal 2019.

Officials of the regional vocational school district presented the budget to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday before the board's regular meeting. The budget is virtually level-funded at $9,343,958 and the town will be assessed $481,594.

The board heard from Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District Superintendent James Brosnan and School Committee Cheshire representative Bill Craig, who walked the selectmen through the entire budget that will only increase .04 percent.

"We took what the towns told us very seriously about the assessments and … we have worked very hard to reduce the assessments to the towns while still maintaining our level of education," Craig told the selectmen. "I think we did a good job with that."

Brosnan said Cheshire will see a $61,535 increase over last year that can be directly correlated to more Cheshire students going to McCann.

"There was an increase there, but this is really proportionate to the number of students that attend," he said. "More students mean a few more dollars."

Cheshire's enrollment has gone up five students making them the third largest contributor in the district with 49 students.

The selectmen had no substantial concerns with the budget.

"This is a good clean budget," Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said. "Thank you very much for a very good presentation."

Before starting their regularly scheduled meeting, the Selectmen also heard from some of the town's younger residents who asked if it would be possible to build a skate park somewhere on the former Cheshire Elementary School grounds.

Francesconi said she did not know much about skate parks or what it would entail but was not opposed to the idea

"This is not the first time this has been brought before us and we will discuss and see what the feeling is," she said. "We also need to figure out the cost and things like that."

Selectman Edmund St. John IV agreed and said there may be grant opportunities and recommended that they approach North Adams, which recently built a skate park.

"It may be good to ask them what it took and that could provide a blueprint and then we can work towards working something out," he said. "Thank you for bringing it to us."

Cheshire Tag Sale and Bazaar