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Date: 4/18/2022
LUDLOW – With Town Meeting just weeks away, the Ludlow School Committee hosted a public hearing over the proposed Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) budget during its April 12 meeting.
To begin the meeting, the committee reorganized after the town election, naming Chip Harrington the chair, Jeffrey Laing the vice chair and Sarah Bowler the secretary.
When it came to the budget presentation, interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth said the total budget appropriation from the town would be $34,315,965, which was a 1 percent increase over the prior year. To maintain a level service budget from Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22), Nemeth said the district was short by over $1 million, which would require a 4.65 percent increase for the FY23 budget.
Nemeth also recapped the budget process, detailing the many meetings dating back to freezing the FY22 budget in November. Along the way, the district proposed a 5 percent increase, were told to come back with a 3 percent increase, and then were given a .5 percent budget increase that was eventually brought up to the 1 percent increase in the Level 2 budget.
Nemeth said she spoke to the town’s Budget Subcommittee about the 0 percent increase and her concerns before it was brought up to 1 percent.
“How can the biggest department in the town receive a 0 percent increase? I have the most employees – in my opinion – education is the center of town, people move into the town for the educational system, how are you giving me 0 percent when I need a 4.65? I’m willing to take a 3, I can make that work,” she said.
Nemeth also questioned the Board of Selectmen’s decision about the Level 2 budget acceptance on Feb. 22.
“I am not so sure they made the best decisions or had all the facts in hand to accept the Level 2 budget. So, our budget was accepted and there was nothing I could do,” she said.
Nemeth said the biggest increases in cost for the budget came from out of district placements for special education, which costs about $70,000 to $80,000 per student on top of $830,000 in transportation costs. Other reasons for cost increases included contract negotiations with the district’s eight bargaining units and in-house Special Education costs.
To meet the proposed budget, 17 teaching positions would be cut or reduced, including two retirements that are not going to be filled and one Special Education position that had never been filled. Overall, 14 positions would be cut. The cuts include one Spanish teacher, one physical education teacher, one band teacher, one chorus teacher, one art teacher, one Special Education teacher, one Portuguese teacher, one social studies teacher, a third-grade teacher, a fourth-grade teacher, a first-grade teacher, two kindergarten teachers and one music teacher. With the changes, some teachers would have different teaching responsibilities and would have to split duties between different buildings for their workday.
As a result of the music and art changes, students at Harris Brook Elementary would have those classes 24 times throughout the year, down from 48, and at East Street School, students would have those classes 30 times a year, down from 60. As a result, students would only have these classes for half a year. While band would remain untouched, students would no longer be able to take piano and guitar classes at the middle school. In terms of the cut to the Portuguese learning program, it would be cut at the middle school but would still be available at the high school.
Nemeth also went over the Elementary and Secondary Relief (ESSER) Funds and said the district received $3.19 million and has used some of it for addressing learning loss, addressing the needs of students impacted by COVID-19, training and more. For the FY23 budget, Nemeth said there will be two-year positions created for two educational testing evaluators, a social worker, a focus teacher, an intensive learning program teacher, an English language teacher and specialized instruction program teacher.
In the committee’s discussion, Laing said he was disappointed in the way the budget process was handled by the Board of Selectmen.
“People do move to towns because of the education system, they don’t care about a new firetruck, but they care about the teachers. Unfortunately, we are going to go through this again two years from now. I think you were plagued by the selectmen who saw we had ESSER funds we could spend on the budget and didn’t know we couldn’t,” he said. “The interim superintendent was not treated fairly and was not included in the process as much as she should. Kids shouldn’t be asked to fight for their favorite teacher.”
When asked about cutting from the administrative team, Nemeth said it would be difficult to do so after a discussion with incoming Superintendent Frank Tiano.
“He was quite surprised at the lack of staffing there is at central office. It’s the superintendent, director of curriculum, director of Special Ed., director of IT, director of nursing and that is it,” she said.
Even though using ESSER funds to supplement the budget could lead to a budgetary cliff once those funds run out, Harrington suggested the administration team go back and find a way to use those funds to prevent some of the cuts, especially if it were possible to incorporate the intense learning needs positions with ESSER.
“I get it, there is a funding cliff, but desperate times call for desperate measures and we will need to deal with it eventually, but we could apply those positions toward ESSER knowing that there is a funding cliff, get through this year and then working with the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee moving forward ensuring those funds can be re-established,” he said. “Anytime we talk about budgets, the classroom should be the absolute last area impacted.”
Following the presentation and committee comments, the public was given an opportunity to ask questions and give their opinions on the budget. Many students, teachers, parents and community members spoke during the session and expressed concerns over cuts and reductions to the Portuguese program at Baird Middle School, reductions and changes to music programs and art. Many speakers also echoed sentiments that the budgeting process was not handled properly by the Board of Selectmen.
Ultimately, Nemeth agreed to go back to the drawing board with the administration team to come up with another budget plan for the School Committee’s next meeting.
The Ludlow School Committee next meets on April 26 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the May 5 edition of The Reminder.