NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Department is presenting a fiscal 2027 draft budget of $22 million, up 3.5 percent over this year. 

 

The spending plan of $22,393,775 is an increase of $757,554 over this year. It will be funded through the Chapter 70 state education grant estimated at $16,796,682 (based on the governor's budget); school-choice funds of $1,446,419, up $506,411; and local funding of $4,150,673, up $161,942 or 4.06 percent.

 

"Going into this budget season for 2027, I should have put level service maybe in quotes, to provide a level service budget to meet student needs," said Superintendent Timothy Callahan referring to a slide presentation at Thursday's Finance & Facilities subcommittee meeting. "We're not increasing services. We cannot afford to increase services." 

 

He said there will be changes made in terms of positions and services, which will be offset by reductions in other places to address two findings in his superintendent entry plan: special education, and curriculum and instructional consistency.

 

"We're trying to remain stable across all grade levels to meet student needs," he said. "Special education is something that we have to make sure we'll continue to prioritize. It's expensive, and we can't underfund the special education. ...

 

"We need to have the right curriculum in place, but we also need to have make sure that we're supporting leaders who are leading the work around curriculum, instruction and assessment, so that we can have consistency in those measures."

 

The superintendent pointed to the problems with the Chapter 70 funding related to special education. The formula assumes a 16 percent rate for special education services but the district has 32 percent of its student body receiving services, including individualized education plans. 

 

A troubling statistic is that 62 percent of the 100 children in preschool are receiving services — but Chapter 70 doesn't even include preschool. For prekindergarten through second grade, it's 40.4 percent.

 

"Mount Greylock has 15 percent of students on special ed, we have 32 percent of students on special ed," said Callahan. "We both get the same differential from Chapter 70, which seems like an equity issue to me."

 

If formula was properly funding for special education, the district would be getting about $1.2 million in Chapter 70, he said. 

 

Some 21 children are in out-of-district placements right now, costing about $3 million; this is offset by about $1.6 million state circuit breaker funds. The district was able to staff up some programs that saved an estimated $800,000 because the students could serviced in house. 

 

Along with high needs, the district, like other across the state, is seeing a drop in enrollment. North Adams has 1,062 students, a decline of 62 from last school year. However, school officials say it's a little confusing as to why these numbers have dropped as preschool and kindergarten have largely been flat. 

 

The district does lose about 20-25 students to McCann at the beginning of high school, and a few shed off to Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School over the years. 

 

"Our general anecdotal information is that people just moved away," Callahan said, noting about 20 left between Grades 9 and 10. "It's unusual where the dips actually happened. They didn't happen just in the lower grade. It's not the lower birth rate, yet, contributing to this decline, but we're trying to get a handle on that so we better understand the trajectory."

 

He said the district has actually reduced the percentage of students leaving, largely because of the access to early college, based on interviews with students. Assistant Superintendent Anne Pecor is investigating the discrepancy. 

 

Finance & Facilities will go through the budget line by line at its next meeting.