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Date: 3/29/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — An increase in state funding will make up for some of the loss in federal grants in the fiscal year 2024 budget, administrators told the School Committee on March 21.
“We’re getting 13.9% more revenue from the state” in Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal, said School Business Manager Adam Tarquini. “Were not going to get all of that, but we built our budget on that preliminary number. The target of the budget was really bringing the positions we had identified in our Student Opportunity Plan a few years ago off ESSER and into our budget. They’re not new positions, they were just previously grant-funded.”
West Springfield has received millions of dollars of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, a series of grants from coronavirus relief packages approved by Congress in 2020 and 2021. The school spent some of the money on technology to ease the adoption of remote learning, and air purifiers, outdoor tents and personal protective equipment to maintain a healthy environment and social distancing when classes resumed in person. But the majority of the grants went toward hiring new staff, including “interventionist” teachers to help students catch up on reading and mathematics, and behavioral specialists to address the social and emotional challenges for children that arose during the pandemic.
Although the federal coronavirus-related funding is running out, the FY24 budget continues to focus on addressing learning loss and mental health.
“Anybody you talk to who’s in education or mental health will tell you the need is great,” said interim School Superintendent Vito Perrone. “We really want to recognize that the last two and a half years have been challenging. They’ve been a challenge nationwide, statewide, districtwide.”
The $53.43 million proposed budget is about a 9% increase from the $48.96 million being spent in the current year. Of the $4.48 million increase, $1.88 million is directly attributable to formerly grant-funded positions being added to the main budget. Additionally, the budget had to absorb the loss of a $1 million ESSER busing grant that has expired.
The good news, administrators said, is that West Springfield is in line for a double-digit increase in state aid, due in part to a resumption of extra funding under the 2019 state law known as the Student Opportunity Act. Tarquini said out of the $1.34 million in positions charged to ESSER grants, about $1 million had already been planned as Student Opportunity Act hires. Perrone said they can now be incorporated into the general budget as originally intended.
“The SOA or Student Opportunity Act was interrupted a couple years ago because of COVID,” said Perrone. “With the infusion of funds from ESSER, we took advantage of that money and put some positions there that would have been on our operating budget, and we also thought about what was currently at that time on School Choice, and we wanted to get that off School Choice and reallocate that to our operating budget.”
Under the School Choice program, schools can accept transfer students from other communities, which then pay a tuition fee. West Springfield has been using those revenues for operating expenses each year, said Perrone, but since the flow of money is inconsistent from year to year, they should be used for one-time expenses.
Another “huge factor” in the growth in the budget, said Tarquini, is an increase in out-of-district tuition rates for special education students who cannot be served in local schools. Healey’s budget proposes a 14% increase in special education pay rates.
“Over the last 10 years, that increase has been around 2% on an annual basis,” Tarquini said. “This year, they have proposed an increase of 14%, which will certainly be detrimental to any district. We will see some savings in our special education budget this year due to some students aging out of placements, but the students we are still placing, we will see a 14% increase. This is a huge factor in our budget. We really don’t have much say in this number.”
Only one person from outside the school administration spoke at the March 21 hearing. Justin Latham, a parent of three public school students, said alongside the resources for students achieving below grade level, the schools need to offer more “gifted and talented” programs for high achievers. He also said he would like to have seen administrators talk more about what they would like to add to the budget, if funding were available.
“What is the School Department going to ask to the town that they’re not going to get?” he asked. “Those communities that invest in good schools grow and prosper, while those that don’t stagnate. Some would argue that we can’t afford this sort of increase in our budget, but we really can’t afford not to.”
Reichelt said he would welcome additional comments at the School Committee meeting on April 4. Following the public hearing, the committee is expected to vote on whether to endorse the budget. The budget voted by the School Committee then becomes part of the mayor’s townwide budget proposal, and later this spring goes before the Town Council for approval.