Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
| By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor CHICOPEE Through efforts between Mayor Michael Bissonnette and School Superintendent Richard Rege, the $6 million shortfall in the school budget has been trimmed to a $600,000 gap. Bissonnette explained to the Chicopee Herald that his two priorities in the budget process is to avoid laying anyone off and not to impose user fees on Chicopee students for athletics and other extracurricular activities. The proposed school budget was $64 million and there was $58 million in revenue available to fulfill it. The way the city has to prepare its budget is "backward," Bissonnette explained. The city must write a budget before it knows how much state aid it will receive. Bissonnette said he has closely monitored the budget proposal in the Legislature and used the House proposal as the base for his budget. The House numbers are more conservative than the Senate's figures, he added. Bissonnette and Rege worked on eliminating positions through attrition and moving the funding of some programs to grants. He said there would be a number of anticipated retirements and his plan is to hire people for the higher positions that are open and not fill the lower positions. He said the process has benefited from the fact this is the first Chicopee school budget for both men, "We're taking a fresh look at all this," Bissonnette said. He said he has been looking at the duplication of services and said re-organizing the contract for 57 photocopiers used by the city, the city was able to realize a $225,000 to $300,000 savings a year over the course of the five-year contract. He is now examining other city departments for similar kinds of savings. As an example he said there are four city departments that are charged with cutting grass on city properties something that Bissonnette said, "makes no financial sense." |