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Date: 3/21/2023
SOUTH HADLEY – In a joint meeting between the Selectboard and School Committee on the use of remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in relation to the school budget, the Selectboard voted to approve $605,000 in ARPA funds to be used in fiscal year 2025 (FY25) and an earmark for $293,000 in ARPA funds for FY26.
The March 16 meeting was an opportunity for the joint bodies to present their four-year funding transition plan in a combined effort to find new approaches to student support services. South Hadley schools Superintendent Mark McLaughlin spoke to both bodies and broke down the path the town is looking to take financially.
“Quality schools are a major reason why people choose to live in a community. We believe that the education and well-being of our youth should be supported at every level of government, especially by but not just by the school department,” a joint statement from the boards said. “We strive to think creatively, proactively and boldly about the changes we need, the investments we choose and the partnerships we develop to support our youth. This is a long-term process, and there is no better time to start than now.”
McLaughlin broke down four goals the district and Selectboard have identified through this process. The first goal is to improve academic achievement for all students and recover and rebuild with academic support that help students achieve their individual potential.
According to McLaughlin, the coronavirus pandemic did impact schools everywhere, but it also heightened underlying problems a school district may have had before a global pandemic.
“It’s important to point out that in a moment like COVID[-19], a district can either be well prepared or less than well prepared, and when we have staff that was really diminished as it was, I think it’s fair to say that we were not in the best place to weather that storm and we want to be sure that we’re able to weather whatever storms come in the future,” McLaughlin said. “If no storms, and let’s hope there are none, then we just do the best we can for our students, and we need the staff to equal their needs.”
The second goal is focused on student physical and emotional wellbeing. McLaughlin said the district is committed to understanding and improving student mental health challenges, instances of food insecurity and other impediments to overall success.
McLaughlin added along with working to improve areas of health and wellbeing, college is not always the next step for all students. Being able to offer new opportunities to set students up for a post high school life with no college but still on track for a career was important for them.
The other two goals listed were improving workforce connections and community engagement. For workforce connections, the idea is to create relevant and desired programs that provide students with extra academic opportunities. For community engagement, it is to create avenues for community support and expand conversations about youth in the community.
“[We want] to continue to model what we’re trying to model tonight, which is seen on the youth of our community as everybody’s opportunity and everybody’s responsibility, so we recognize and are working to that level of community,” McLaughlin explained.
Some budget factors presented by McLaughlin on behalf of the district included having staff size equal to the needs of the students it serves, health of facilities, breadth of programming, continuous training of its staff, quality schools as they equate to overall health and strength of a community and supports property values, and that the quality of schools is linked to students choosing in or out.
“When people contemplate moving into a community, they want to know about schools,” McLaughlin said. “The quality of our schools is directly linked to students choosing in or out and we have begun to see evidence of students in some cases either [school choice] out of our district or taking advantage of charter or private schools. That’s something we are trying to address in our budget goals.”
Investments the district is eyeing through their new four-year plan are adding a Mental Health Coordinator, a Certified Nurse Assistant, a Float Nurse and new positions titled Education Team Leaders.
Education Team Leaders would support consistent application of special education rules, procedures and documents as well as supports compliance and communication with parents and students. For now, the district would plan on using one Education Team Leader for two of the town’s schools and another for the other two, with an ultimate goal of eventually having one for each school building.
Other investments targeted include adding more staff, adding an Assistant Director of Student Services to support the exponential growth of requirements in the special education domain, adding a culinary and carpentry teacher to reflect the growing vocational interests of students, and custodial investments to maintain repairs and ensure safe and health facilities.
FY24 is year one of the four-year plan and will seek additional funding in the upcoming budget but just for contracted salary increases for teachers and paraeducators. In FY25, additional funding is being sought after for contracts and the town will be moving some positions from ESSER funding to the local budget fund or ARPA. It was later voted to have ARPA assist in this fiscal year.
For FY26, a contract is yet to be negotiated but it will be the final year of using ARPA funds, and in FY27 the same will be done as any remaining positions funded by ARPA will then be funded from the town’s budget.
After more deliberation among the boards on which direction to take with this four-year plan, Town Administrator Lisa Wong noted that one of the town’s expected capital projects will no longer be using any of the remaining $3.8 million in ARPA funds.
Wong explained that $2.2 million of that remaining fund is already earmarked for the Judd Brook Sewer Interceptor Stream Repair Project and there is about $1.6 million left to be allocated. Initially, $1.5 million of this remaining fund was being considered to complete the school capital project of replacing the high school HVAC system.
The project won’t be developed in time for ARPA eligibility so the funding must shift elsewhere. ARPA funds must be allocated and obliged by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.
The Selectboard ultimately voted to approve the $605K in ARPA funding to be used in FY25. This money will work toward the goals listed earlier by McLaughlin, including the addition of a mental health coordinator, two educational team leader positions, new teachers at the middle school, and the required CNA and float nurse.
The Selectboard also approved to earmark an additional $293,000 in ARPA for FY26, which will again cover the nurses, a district social worker/mental health coordinator, new teachers and support to custodial. This ARPA funding helps ease the district back into complete local budgeting for FY27. The full budget is expected to be presented at the Selectboard’s March 21 meeting.