Updated on Monday afternoon to include a revised estimate of Williamstown's total tax levy increase with the proposed school district budget.

 

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee approved a fiscal year 2027 spending plan  on Thursday that officials characterize as a "level services" budget.

 

The elected body approved the same budget it reviewed two days earlier after deciding not to add an additional full-time teaching position at Williamstown Elementary School as advocated by a half-dozen WES parents who addressed the committee in the annual budget public hearing.

 

That additional position, a math interventionist sought by the WES School Council, would have added about $120,000 (for salary and benefits) to the assessment to Williamstown and raised that assessment to 14.42 percent over the amount raised for the district through Williamstown property taxes in the current fiscal year.

 

Before taking a vote to advance the budget as drafted, School Committee member Jose Constantine moved that the bottom line be increased by the $120,000 necessary for the full-time math interventionist. His motion was defeated, 4-2, with Curtis Elfenbein joining Constantine in the minority and Steven Miller, who joined the meeting late, not voting.

 

The final, original, budget then was passed on a vote of 6-0, setting the stage for the district's presentation to the Williamstown Finance Committee on Wednesday and to the Lanesborough Fin Comm and Select Board on April 6.

 

Ultimately, the budget will show up on the annual town meeting warrants in Lanesborough and Williamstown, where voters later this spring will have an up-or-down vote. The budget approved on Thursday would raise the assessment to Williamstown by 13.61 percent, year-to-year, and in Lanesborough by 10.99 percent.

 

Williamstown would be on the hook for $16.8 million (up about $2 million from FY26). Lanesborough's assessment would be $7.6 million (up by $751,000).

 

Thursday's meeting began with public comment from parents who urged the School Committee to honor the request from the School Council — a state-mandated committee of teachers, staff and caregivers that represents each building in a regional school district.

 

"I think asking the town for this investment while saying it keeps services level is not something we should feel good about," said Jenna Hasenkampf, a parent of two children at WES who serves on the School Council. "I think it's coming at a cost to the students. I think we have resisted improvement because of things the town has asked for around making sure we have space for the fire department, which was a need. We have the police department asking to add another staff member.

 

"I think it's time that we also need to look at what the school absolutely needs."

 

Hasenkampf told the committee that math struggles at the elementary school level have "lifelong consequences," and giving help to pupils who need it allows them to be more prepared to enter the middle-high school.

 

Devan Bartels was one of several parents who told the committee that they were willing to advocate for the budget and that the school's parents would come out in force at town meeting to give that support with their votes.

 

Another parent of two WES pupils told the committee her children benefited from instruction from the school's reading interventionist while they were in kindergarten.

 

"I think that we are probably losing out on really valuable education time by not having a math specialist, especially in the early elementary years," Ash Bell said. "One semester of intervention can have payoff for years and years to come. I saw both my children's reading comprehension, reading levels, letter comprehension go through the roof with that little extra boost that they needed, that they were so fortunately able to receive by having reading interventionists at the elementary school.

 

"We have to do that for math also. It is vital that we are using the time those students have in those formative years to get them the education that they need."

 

Julia Keosaian told the committee that her family moved to Williamstown because of the school system and wants to see its excellence maintained.

 

"We chose this community because we believe in it, and I'dlove to see the School Committee make the kind of investment that shows that they do, too," Keosaian said.

 

After the public comment period ended, the chair of the School Committee's Finance subcommittee and the district's superintendent walked the committee through the reasons why the increases in the district's assessments to its member towns are historically high, citing a hike in health insurance costs, a reduction in state and federal aid and the absence of reserves which the district purposefully spent down at the request of its towns over the last couple of years. Those arguments are laid out in an FAQ document on the district's web page.

 

Superintendent Joseph Bergeron noted that the FY27 budget is not "level-staffed" because it reduces one full-time equivalent position at the district office and two FTEs among paraprofessionals.

 

"That is paraprofessionals who are already departing and paraprofessional positions that are described as being one-on-ones by the nature of a [individualized education program] team working, collaborating and making that decision. That has naturally declined by two.

 

"But no employee is losing their job with this budget, and that's important to know. I know that's not enough, but I do want to make sure that at every turn, whenever there is a question, we are making sure our staff know exactly what this budget contains for them and their lives next year."

 

Constantine argued that the School Committee should follow the recommendations of the School Council it has in place to determine what each school needs.

 

"At the moment, we are hearing from families who have children in our district, in Williamstown, clearly hearing a need or desire to answer the call of the hard work done by the School Council at Williamstown Elementary," Constantine said. "At a recent School Committee meeting, I asked our wonderful principal if we could identify the two priority areas that Williamstown Elementary really needs to address.

 

"The math interventionist came out immediately. The need for a specialist in that area is reflected in, as we all know, some of the challenges that are appearing in our MCAS scores in math."

 

Carolyn Greene and Julia Bowen countered, in part, by pointing out that the district already is facing a battle to get the budget passed with double-digit percentage increases to both member towns. Raising that percentage by another 0.8 percent (or $120,000) would not make passage at town meeting any easier.

 

"In our seat as representing the schools, we should be advocating for what we think our students need most," Bowen said. "So I'm right with you, Jose [Constantine]. My question, though, that I'm struggling with in my head is around risk/reward and what should advocacy mean in the short-term and the long-term.

 

"I think we've all benefitted from really good partnerships with our towns — the finance committees and select boards. And I don't want to lose that, because I don't think they've told us to hold back. I just think we've worked with them to figure out how to work together. And I don't know how they'd feel if we said we want to add that teacher. I am worried that, if we push, we don't get the budget passed at all."

 

If the budget fails at either member town's town meeting, the School Committee would have the opportunity to amend its proposed budget and send it back to both towns for special town meeting votes. If it fails a second time, the district likely would start the 2026-27 school year on July 1 with a "one-twelvth" budget, where it is authorized by the commonwealth to spend 8.3 percent of its FY26 budget each month until a new budget is approved locally.

 

"The risk I'm trying to weigh in my head is what happens if we push and we can't get the budget through," Bowen said. "Then we just have a bunch of uncertainty and challenges in other ways. The last time I remember being through one of those cycles, I was one of the 10 teachers who was laid off. And I ended up leaving the district.

 

"I'm worried about that kind of negative outcome if we can't get a budget passed."

 

Greene asked Bergeron to explain why the WES math interventionist was not included in the budget before the committee.

 

He gave a three-part answer.

 

First, Bergeron said he recognized that the 13.61 percent assessment increase for Williamstown in the proposed budget already was "massive" and "historic."

 

In February, the Williamstown Finance Committee began reviewing a budget — for the town and schools — that had an estimated 7.7 percent increase in the property tax levy. That budget included just a "placeholder" 9 percent increase in the assessment from the Mount Greylock Regional School District, far below the 13.61 percent increase approved by the School Committee on Thursday night.

 

On Monday, Williamstown's finance director said that a 13.61 percent increase in the district's assessment would translate to a 10.4 percent increase in the town's tax levy, all other factors staying the same.

 

Based on the anticipated 9 percent rise, the property tax bill for a median single family home ($468,500) would go up by $502 dollars in FY27, based on the town's budget documents.

 

Bergeron's second argument against adding a math interventionist next year is that the school district currently is in the first year of rolling out a new math curriculum. He indicated it might be prudent to give the new teaching approach a chance before taking the step of adding an interventionist.

 

"Waiting a year and figuring out how those supports will best be utilized also creates the continual need to figure out how to maximize what we have," Bergeron said. "I know that does not sound like the ‘shoot for the stars' approach. But it's also a pretty real way to try to manage rolling something out, learning it, growing within it and maximizing its use."

 

Third, Bergeron said adding the math interventionist in FY27 could constrain the district's ability to address other needs down the road, because he would see the potential new hire as a permanent addition to the payroll.

 

"We've talked a lot within this committee over the last few years about the need to make sure we are addressing students as a whole, as opposed to only the academic needs of students," Bergeron said. "Conflict between students, between students and staff, between staff and staff — all of that needs attention. It needs care. Because it impacts everything else about their lives and the ways that they grow. Knowing that we need to invest there is also weighing on my mind.

 

"Every time we hire somebody, that is a commitment. And if the decision tonight is to add money into the budget to hire a math interventionist, that commitment is going to be there to make sure that individual knows … It's a luxury, in a sense, that we've had in this district, but it's also been one of our real strengths that when we hire people, we don't have them turning around a year later and saying, ‘Because of a budget cut or a reallocation, am I losing my job?' That commitment to people allows us to typically hire the absolute best people we can find."

 

Constantine later asked Bergeron to speak to the potential to add a math interventionist by reallocating some one of the positions already funded in the FY27 budget.

 

Bergeron said that would be one path to getting the math position, but it would mean a whole other conversation for district officials and the community: a conversation about reducing the number of sections within a grade at WES.

 

"Part of the reason that is a conceivable move is that when you look at the top 30 elementary schools in the state of Massachusetts by most metrics … our class sizes at Williamstown Elementary School are, in some situations, significantly smaller on average than that pool of high-performing schools," Bergeron said.

 

"However, I know Williamstown and Williamstown Elementary School and this district have often stuck to trying to keep those class sizes as small as they have been. That would be a serious conversation around pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages and ways that we want to think about things moving forward."

 

As for the district's other elementary school, the School Council at Lanesborough Elementary School also advocated for a math interventionist in the FY27 budget — in its case, a half-time position.

 

Bergeron indicated that request is more manageable, given the smaller school size in Lanesborough.

 

"Lanesborough Elementary School has a little more than half the enrollment," Bergeron said. "Through that differing nature, many times Lanesborough Elementary School already has portions of an FTE dedicated to one thing and portions dedicated to another thing in a way that Williamstown doesn't have with its scale.

 

"If this budget was to pass in a way that says Williamstown Elementary School gains an additional FTE, it's not necessarily that Lanesborough Elementary School would be without a math intervention capability next year, but it would be different. And it would be different in a way that both schools, by their very nature, are different."