School district awarded for budgetary excellence

Date: 7/18/2011

July 18, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM — In recognition of its hard work over the past year, the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) awarded the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) with the Meritorious Budget Award for excellence in budget presentation.

“It was a big project that required help from a lot of people,” Beth Regulbuto, assistant superintendent for business, said. “It’s a really big honor. I think we’re only the fifth district in Massachusetts to receive the honor.”

The ASBO’s criteria for the award is stringent, focusing mainly on the quality of a district’s ability to not only develop a budget, but present it to the public.

“Meeting the Meritorious Budget Award criteria is demanding enough, but is further complicated by the fact that Hampden-Wilbraham is a regional school district which involves more complex budget planning considerations,” Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea said. “Mrs. Regulbuto and her staff are to be commended for participating in the Meritorious Budget Awards Program in an effort to improve the annual budget process in the District and to make it more accessible to our taxpayers.”

HWRSD’s administrative team had an especially tall task in front of them in developing its fiscal year 2012 budget, which included a $1.5 million budget shortfall, which needed to be closed. The effort to close that gap required cooperation from several entities throughout the district and the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden.

With information coming from so many different sources, Regulbuto had the responsibility of consolidating all the information. She said that making sure all aspects of the budget were presented to the town in a manner that could be easily understood was a major key to the district’s success.

“It was an effort by everyone, but my job was to assemble all the information so that everyone could share it and everyone could understand it,” she said. “It was less about the award and more about putting together the best budget possible. We wanted to show the people how we were putting their hard-earned money to use and show that we spent it toward educational excellence.”

Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee chair Scott Chapman also lauded Regulbuto’s efforts.

“Assistant Superintendent Regulbuto continues to impress the School Committee with her dedication and pursuit of excellence,” he said.