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Date: 11/9/2022
BELCHERTOWN – After a few months of trying to receive American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the Select Board, the School Committee discussed how to distribute the money at their Nov. 1 meeting.
The School Committee received $617,000 in ARPA funds and expressed that they wanted to use the money to compensate employees who worked during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the committee met with the Select Board on Oct. 11, members of the board expressed that the committee could do whatever they want with their money without any outside input.
The School Committee also had another request in to receive $300,000 from ARPA funds to help pay for a new security camera that is “outdated,” according to Superintendent Brian Cameron.
Cameron added, “We do not need the Cadillac model, but we need something that will meet our needs.”
The Select Board agreed to give the committee $617,000 instead of the full $917,000 and said they can come back to discuss their request for funding for cameras.
Cameron and School Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst opened the conversation stating they think it would be best to put aside a percentage of the funds to use for the cameras in case the Select Board does not grant them more money.
School Committee member Michael Knapp expressed some concerns over not using all the funds for school employees.
He said, “I am torn because I agree we need newer cameras, but we did tell the Select Board this money would be used for premium pay. I fear they would not grant us more money if we approved this.”
Gutekenst said that the main concern is if they put 100 percent of the funds to the employees, they won’t have any money to help pay for new security cameras if the Select Board denies their request. She added that the percentage of the funds that is put aside still can be used on the employees once they figure out if they are getting an additional $300,000.
Cameron continued and said that the original plan was to pay $2,500 to full-time employees and $1,250 to part-time employees who qualified. This included $500 that the school committee said they would give to each employee.
He added it is a need to update the security cameras other than a want and they would have to find the money elsewhere to pay the estimated $300,000 to $500,000 for new cameras.
School Committee Secretary Amy LaMothe crunched the numbers and suggested if they used the ARPA funds and awarded $1,500 to full-time employees and $500 to part-time employees, that would leave around $150,000 for cameras if they took out 25 percent of the funds.
That does not include the additional $500 the employees will still receive from the schools.
The committee approved to take out 25 percent of $617,000 to put toward cameras if the Select Board does not grant them more money.
Cameron added that he will reach out to the Select Board to meet with them in the coming weeks to discuss their ARPA funds request for new security cameras and reach out to figure out how to distribute the funds to the employees as soon as possible.
The School Committee will meet again on Nov. 15.