Pittsfield School Committee Mulls Lukewarm FY26 Budget
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There isn't much to be said about the district's "as good as it gets" budget for fiscal year 2026.
Officials are just glad that people won't lose their jobs.
"I'm going to say something that I know is going to get me in trouble later, but I think this is as good as it gets," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.
On Wednesday, School Committee members aired their suggestions for the $87 million budget proposal with $1,238,000 in payroll reductions expected to be made through job movement, attrition, retirements, etc.
A $3,765,084 increase from FY25, it includes an $18 million city contribution and more than $68 million of anticipated Chapter 70 funding.
"The cuts were not as great as anticipated, and that's something to be grateful for, but they will still be painful, and the area of pain I think that will be felt the most is in managing student behaviors," Sara Hathaway said.
"And I know there's an infinity of need for resources in the building to manage student behaviors. It's a problem that we're dealing with on many, many levels."
While there isn't much wiggle room with the numbers, some members feel there is a need for more communications or human resources personnel.
An investigation into alleged misconduct at Pittsfield High School will wrap up by the end of the month, if it hasn't already. Hathaway said discussions have arisen about personnel investigations taking too long in the Pittsfield Public Schools and suggested more human resource staff.
"I don't think that's the fault of our personnel department. I think it's just a matter of the staffing level that we have now," she said.
"But it would be in everybody's interest if we could expedite some of these investigations, the internal investigations that we handle, because then we won't have as many expenses under subs and it would pay off to have added administrative capacity in that department, I think, so that we can do our job more quickly, for those who are waiting for decisions."
She recognized that this is an area where "everybody would win if we could distribute the workload in a different way in that area."
Similarly, member William Garrity suggested a communications staff member, recognizing that "a lot of people are not going to agree with me on this."
"I think one of the issues that people bring up with the district is the communication aspect, I think having someone who's dedicated to a communication role in the central office would help improve some of the communication we have seen so it's not falling on the superintendent, who has to manage the situation but also communicate about it," he said.
"But I think it could also help with building more connection with the community, and I think maybe that's something we should explore."
Marchetti believes there should be some caution on any positions that are added to the district.
"If you look at last year, the amount of revenue increase: $4 million. Amount of expenses increased: $6.6 million. The sky is falling. We've got to cut $2.6 million out of a budget in order to keep going," he said.
"This year, not as drastic. We need $5 million to keep up with the increases, but we can only come up with $3.7 million. Next year is not going to get any better, right? And so the conversations that we have to start having are longer-term. What can we build into the Pittsfield Public School system that's sustainable?"
The mayor also pointed to budget uncertainties on the national level and advocated for building a sustainable future for the district.
"I don't want to be a pessimist, and I haven't done the complete research, but I think we're on a crash course for Massachusetts losing tons of education funding," he reported.
"And when that happens, I don't want to be the guy that everyone looks to, but there's no way I can find $10 million if we lose $10 million with the federal funding. It's not there."
Vice Chair Daniel Elias agreed.
"I think we're at the point now where if we want to add something, we have to subtract something
because this is truly a game of sustainability, and if we grow this too much, it affects our ability to be able to fund it next year, and I think the pain would even be greater if we did not act responsibly now," he said.
He is "very thankful" that nobody will lose employment with the cuts.
"I just want to be able to put ourselves in a position where we have a fighting chance to do that again next year," he said.
Chair William Cameron, pointing to the committee's ongoing struggle to update its social media policy and dictate who owns social media accounts with PPS branding, brought up a possible account manager for social media.
"I don't know what that would entail. I don't know whether it's it would be a full-time job or not, and I don't know whether the responsibility for that could be contracted out but it seems to me that it is important that we get control of what it is we're purporting to put out under the district's name," he said.
"And so I'm proposing that there be some investigation done of how to do that. It may be better to contract with someone or maybe a collaborative or something that could do that, I don't know."
While Cameron feels that outgoing Superintendent Joseph Curtis' regular communications are more than substantial, he reported receiving something from a collaborative that offers this service and thinks they should look into it.
"I'm incredulous about that, given the information that is put out on a weekly basis by the superintendent. There may be in some people's views too much put out," he said.
"That is, there's so much information that it's difficult to keep track of it, but that there's a lack of information boggles my mind that anyone would take that position."
Tags: fiscal 2026, Pittsfield Public Schools, pittsfield_budget, school budget,
