Pittsfield School Officials Dig Into 'Not Ideal' FY25 Budget

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — School officials dug into the $3.6 million in reductions proposed for fiscal year 2025 to bridge the funding gap.

Superintendent Joseph Curtis reiterated that the $80 million spending plan is not ideal but assured that the district will continue to serve its community with pride, purpose, compassion, and understanding.

"All the people here this evening went through an extensive process with no less than three meetings to really discuss and analyze and put forth proposals in a sense of reimagining their schools in the best interest of students and our district and school leaders brought forth many ideas using the resources that we have now with greater refinement and purpose and we went through that process with every bit of hope that we would have an intention or an opportunity to carry out some of those discussions and ideas that our leaders brought forth," he said to the School Committee on Wednesday.

"We learned when a budget was released that none of that — or a good deal of that, I'll use that — would be possible and so the budget I'm going to present to you today in great detail is in no way a budget that presents opportunity like we were discussing originally."

He explained that from every struggle the district experiences, opportunity can "certainly" be created and there have been many times in his 30 tenure with the district that it has been.

"And so we want to assure the committee as you will hear from our district and school leaders today that no matter what our circumstance, we will continue to serve children, families, and the community with every bit of pride and purpose that we have now," Curtis added.

"That we will continue to do that with compassion and understanding and that somehow we will get through this. And we know we'll get through this with your support."

Following the budget conversation with the committee, there was a workshop during which different groups spoke in detail about aspects of the proposal.

The district is anticipating a 3.5 percent increase from the FY24 city appropriation of $78,088,016, totaling $80,821,096. With more than $6.3 million in anticipated contractual increases and additional obligations, this creates a local budget shortfall of nearly $3.6 million.

Contractual obligations make up for $4.4 million of the budget drivers and special education out-of-district tuition costs more than $1 million due to additional students being educated out of the district, PPS being responsible for the full cost share, and a lower rate of inflation increase.

The shortfall is largely due to the sunsetting of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds and a lesser allocation of state Chapter 70 funds. The FY25 proposal includes a significant reduction in staff members, some of whom were funded by ESSER.

"Terminology is important," Curtis said. "These positions that were funded by ESSER, they are not reductions, they are not eliminations. The funding source no longer exists at the end of this fiscal year and those positions are not being funded."

Reductions include 27 teachers and 26 paraprofessionals as well as administrators, teachers of deportment, and other specialized positions.

There was a question raised about the proposed $200,000 reduction for safety and security.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kristen Behnke explained that over the past few years the district has installed several systems and the reduction will hamper the district's ability to install new ones.

Dalton Board Signs Off on Land Sale Over Residents' Objections

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Residents demanded the right to speak but the agenda did not include public comment. Amy Musante holds a sign saying the town now as '$20,000 less for a police station.'

DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board signed the sale on the last of what had been known as the Bardin property Monday even as a handful of residents demanded the right to speak against the action. 

 

The quitclaim deed transfers the nine acres to Thomas and Esther Balardini, who purchased the two other parcels in Dalton. They were the third-highest bidders at $31,500. Despite this, the board awarded them the land in an effort to keep the property intact.

 

"It's going to be an ongoing battle but one I think that has to be fought [because of] the disregard for the taxpayers," said Dicken Crane, the high bidder at $51,510.

 

"If it was personal I would let it go, but this affects everyone and backing down is not in my nature." 

 

Crane had appealed to the board to accept his bid during two previous meetings. He and others opposed to accepting the lower bid say it cost the town $20,000. After the meeting, Crane said he will be filing a lawsuit and has a citizen's petition for the next town meeting with over 100 signatures. 

 

Three members of the board — Chair Robert Bishop Jr., John Boyle, and Marc Strout — attended the 10-minute meeting. Members Anthony Pagliarulo and Daniel Esko previously expressed their disapproval of the sale to the Balardinis. 

 

Pagliarulo voted against the sale but did sign the purchase-and-sale agreement earlier this month. His reasoning was the explanation by the town attorney during an executive session that, unlike procurement, where the board is required to accept the lowest bid for services, it does have some discretion when it comes to accepting bids in this instance.