Pittsfield Committee of the Whole Approves $72M School Budget
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On the last day of budget hearings, the City Council preliminary approved the nearly $189 million operating budget and the School Department's budget of about $72 million.
The city's $188,706,018 fiscal 2023 budget was amended from the original proposal of $188,589,144 due to a change in the Finance and Administration department's re-evaluation line from $95,750 to $212,624. It is $9,500,055 higher than fiscal 2022.
With the approval were recommendations to add $1,000 to the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP,) $65,000 for school maintenance, and $50,000 to the building inspector's department.
The School Department budget is $72,398,262, which is a $5,086,562, increase from this year. Most of the increase is pay raises, which amounts to $4.7 million. It was approved by the School Committee in late April.
The operating budget was passed on June 2 with no discussion and Councilor at Large Karen Kalinowsky, Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick, and Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Maffuccio opposed it. Pittsfield Public Schools administrators presented their proposed spending and the council spent more than an hour asking questions.
Kalinowsky and Maffuccio voted in opposition to the school budget as well.
She described the district spending as "top-heavy" and spoke against the elimination of its $125 student sports fee after talking to families who can and can't afford it and finding that both were OK with the rate.
"I just think you're putting that burden now on all the taxpayers," she said.
Members of the administration explained that they are hearing other stories from families and eliminating the fee will encourage more students to try a sport "risk-free" without the fear of wasting the money if it doesn't work out. They added that theater and other artistic extracurriculars don't have a fee and they want sports to be the same.
Ward 3 Councilor Kevin Sherman and Ward 6 Councilor Dina Guiel Lampiasi spoke in support of the change.
"I was a student-athlete and to think about what it would take for a student to go to their coach, their prospective coach you don't even know for sure if they're going to play, and saying ‘listen, I can't ask my parents for money, they don't have it,' that takes a lot for a kid to do in this completely removed from the equation," Lampiasi said, adding that sports are an essential outlet for some students and can change their high school experience for the better.
Councilor at Large Earl Persip III had questions about the district's newly added chief diversity officer —a position that has yet to be filled — and the general efforts towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.
He observed that the district has not been able to hire for the position at $100,000 a year but the salary remains the same. Superintendent Joseph Curtis said two series of interviews were run and the job will be posted again and they are preparing to increase the offering to $105,000 or $107,000.
Persip read from the department's budget proposal book that one of its goals was to retain staff and continue support for employees of color and for their development. He asked where the district is with this goal.
Curtis reported that a human resources director who had a focus on the topic was hired but unfortunately left the position due to medical concerns.
"But in the meanwhile, we have been publishing our hiring statistics to our district website, because as you know, there is sometimes a perception or opinion that there are many applicants of color that come to the public schools, and our hiring statistics certainly say otherwise," He added.
"We've also started affinity groups for our staff members, we have an African American affinity group that I actually just had a meeting with, and they really were, I would say incredibly courageous in explaining some of their experiences they've had from other adults in the midst of public schools, that is it will be a catalyst for professional learning for our entire district next year. And so we have every intention of expanding those affinity groups, we have a white allies group now, we have several other staff groups that we plan on starting in the fall."
The hope is that schools' next human resources director will have a similar lens and continue to breathe life into those endeavors, Curtis said.
Persip also spoke about the importance of properly paying staff, which has been a common topic at School Committee meetings as union employees advocated for living wages. He said that he hopes to see this momentum continue in future budgets so that the district can be competitive with surrounding communities.
A majority of the $4.7 million for contractual obligations will go to the teacher's bargaining unit the United Educators of Pittsfield (UEP.)
"The committee agrees with what some of us seated on this stage tonight have said to us in prior years, namely, we need to pay our employees better," School Committee Chair William Cameron said after the president of UEP spoke during public comment about the need for wage increases.
"First and foremost, we must compete with other districts that were noted a moment ago, we must compete with other districts for the services of well qualified professional staff but we must also compensate our support staff at a level that more adequately recognizes their dedication, hard work, and skills in the various roles they play, that's why the appropriation we seek from the council shows the increase over last year that it does."
Additional highlights of the school budget include the addition of two inclusion special education teachers at Stearns Elementary School, the addition of two career technical education (CTE) teachers at Taconic to grow the program, and a dean of the Crosby Academy.
A teacher of deportment position was reduced to make way for the dean position, which received an more than $23,000 raise. This was another concern of Kalinowsky's, as she feared the role would be similar to the latter.
The administration assured her that this wasn't the case, as it brings a layer of professional development and evaluation supervision support for the teachers.
The complete Pittsfield fiscal 2023 budget as presented can be found in pdf form here.
Tags: fiscal 2023, pittsfield_budget,
