Hoosac Valley Prepares for Budget Cuts in Fiscal 2026
CHESHIRE, Mass.— The Hoosac Valley Regional School District is eying a 3 percent budget increase for total budget of $23.1 million for fiscal year 2026.
This would be an increase of $650,000. Adams and Cheshire would see a combined 2.7 percent raise in their contributions. Nearly a dozen positions will have to be reduced or consolidated hit that target.
"Every year we have a budget we have hard decisions," Superintendent Aaron Dean told the School Committee at Monday's meeting. "Some years are harder than others."
The FY26 budget discussion began on Monday night with a presentation of preliminary numbers. On Tuesday, the Audit and Evaluation subcommittee will pick up the conversation.
Dean recommended a target of $23.1 million. For a level service-funded budget, the spending plan would have to see a $1.3 million, or 5.8 percent, increase from FY25 to nearly $23.8 million.
"We know that's not realistic," the superintendent said.
"So we're going to have to look at the combination of changes and strategies around using other revenues that we have and consolidating certain areas."
This lower increase is said to reflect a combination of changes in state and local funding and would require the use of $350,000 in rural aid reductions but "creates reasonable growth in foundation revenue in line with minimum increases."
"I wish I had better news but we are talking consolidation and reductions," Dean said.
"We have some ideas in terms of that. We were talking probably about 10 positions districtwide that we're going to have to reduce in order to make the numbers work."
Under this calculation, Adams would see a 2.2 percent increase to its contribution, about $131,000, and Cheshire would see a nearly 3.6 percent increase, about $103,000. Assessments are based on enrollment percentage from each town. Together, they would contribute about $8.9 million, nearly $6 million from Adams and nearly $3 million from Cheshire.
The total FY25 revenue was nearly $22.5 million.
Last year, the district received more than $11.8 million in Chapter 70 funding. For FY26, it expects to receive more than $12.2 million, a 3.7 percent increase, as projected in the governor's budget.
The charter school tuition reimbursement is expected to decrease by about 30 percent, totaling about $210,000. It was explained that the district will receive an increase of more than $400,000 in Chapter 70 funding because fewer students are choosing to attend charter schools.
Tags: fiscal 2026, HVRSD_budget,
