Pittsfield Schools Plan Another Difficult Budget Year Sans Layoffs
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools are seeing the effects of inflation on the fiscal year 2027 budget, and want to close the gap in funding without layoffs.
"The short of the long is we will be looking to make a reduction [of] $4 million in our budget for next year," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips reported to the School Committee on Wednesday.
Pittsfield Public Schools expect to see a $404,000 increase in Chapter 70, resulting in $68,855,061. With a $18,000,000 city appropriation, the total budget for fiscal year 2027 would be $86,855,061.
In FY26, the district received $68,450,361 for Chapter 70, the major program for state aid to public elementary and secondary schools.
"The takeaway from this is that even though the revenue growth is really modest, it's not going to cover projected inflationary costs, and it's going to cause some budget pressure," Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Bonnie Howland said.
"While state aid is technically an increase, it's really a net loss."
The School Committee will review a draft budget on March 11.
Howland said the district wants to close the gap with the least impact to schools and staff, which will be "difficult to do." The district will utilize vacancies and analyze class sizes to see if they can "right-size" staffing.
Equity-based budgeting has also been applied, which focuses resources on high-need populations such as English learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students, and PPS will maximize state and federal grants for all eligible costs.
Eighty percent of the school budget is tied to contractual obligations, such as salaries and collective bargaining. Out-of-district tuition and specialized transportation costs for special education rose more than $1 million in recent years, and inflationary costs for insurance (about 11 percent increase,) custodial supplies (about 12 percent increase,) electricity (anticipated 12 percent increase,) and Berkshire Gas's proposed rate hike that would raise the schools' bill by about 20 percent.
There is also an expected 13 percent increase for technology renewals, maintenance, and support.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reports that PPS has 4,682 students across our 14 schools. Phillips said the enrollment has decreased, which is not new news, and it has impacted the funding that Pittsfield plans to receive for FY27.
The Pittsfield schools dropped into a lower Chapter 70 funding category because it has fewer students considered low income.
"Even though we are in a year of budget cuts, that doesn't mean that we are just indiscriminately cutting, but that we are still making decisions around how we are going to continue to improve and move the district forward in a positive way," Phillips said.
She reviewed district values, one of which is to eliminate barriers and promote learning for all students, and demographic data with the committee. Almost 63 percent of Pittsfield students are considered low income, 71.5 percent are considered high needs, 24.5 percent of students have disabilities, and almost 11 percent are English language learners.
Fifty percent of PPS students identify as white, and 90 percent of staff members identify as white.
"You'll see that about half of our students are students of color, half of our students identify as white, and you see the disparity, the disproportionality in staffing numbers," Phillips said.
"This is important to raise, because within our human resources office, we have received a grant to help us with promoting our district, so one of our goals is to make sure that we are sharing information broad and wide in all different communities about who we are, what we value, so that we can try to bring more diverse candidates back into our school system."
Some changes that PPS will see are the leveling of class sizes and staffing to address strategic needs, new data and assessment systems, increased resources for community schools, and a new behavioral program for Pittsfield High School that targets chronic absenteeism.
Morningside and Conte Community School have outdated, open-concept floor plans that aren't conducive to modern learning needs. Phillips said disruption in one class could create a full disruption of the entire grade level and maybe two.
Pittsfield is seeking up to 80 percent reimbursement from the Massachusetts Schools Building Authority to rebuild and consolidate John C. Crosby Elementary and Silvio O. Conte Community School on the Crosby property.
"In the case of especially our two community schools, because they are open concept classrooms, when you have dysregulation in one classroom, it's not impacting just one class in the hallway, it's impacting the whole quad," the interim superintendent said.
"And that could be four classrooms, or that could be eight classrooms."
The Fair Student Funding formula was used for equity-based budgeting to shift from a "staffing-based" budget to a "student-based" one.
It was applied to 11 of the city schools because the two academic, Crosby and Eagle, and Stearns Elementary School to not apply to that formula. A budget will be proposed to support those schools, and improvement goals will be set.
Tags: fiscal 2027, Pittsfield Public Schools, school budget,
