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Date: 3/23/2023
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District’s (HWRSD) fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget was approved at the School Committee’s March 16 meeting. In a tight economic year, with the possibility of program and personnel cuts looming, the vote was 6-1. The lone dissenter, Sherrill Caruana, stated, “$53 million is not enough.”
Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources Aaron Osborne had gone over the budget for a third time with the School Committee. The proposed budget of $53.6 million is an increase of $2.02 million, or 3.97 percent, over the FY23 budget. This amount was reduced from 6 percent in the initial draft of the budget. Despite the increase, this represents a below level services budget.
There are several major factors that contribute to the increase, including $1.1 million in contractual salaries increases, an additional $200,000 in utility costs and a state-mandated hike in out-of-district (OOD) special education placements that is estimated to cost HWRSD $488,650 more than last year. Osborne said the use of substitutes is also on the rise and it is not known if that is related to COVID-19 illnesses or if it is the new normal. He said the coronavirus pandemic has made people more likely to stay home when sick.
The district identified three funding priorities to fulfill parts of its Strategic Plan – $25,000 to fund Curriculum Councils, $25,000 to update the website and $50,000 to complete the ongoing equity audit. Originally, the budget had called for five items to be funded at a cost of $250,000, but the list was pared back to help whittle the cost down.
HWRSD has plans to reconfigure its use of buses for student transportation. Currently, a two-tier system is used, in which Minnechaug Regional High School (MRHS) and Wilbraham Middle School students are picked up first and students at the remaining four schools are transported afterward. Implementation of a three-tier model would reduce the district’s need by five buses and save approximately $200,000 per year. Osborne said this is “pretty significant savings” and is reflected in the FY24 budget.
School Committee member Patrick Kiernan asked how a three-tier system would affect busing. Provost said, “In order to get to school on time with five fewer buses, we’ll have to be less accommodating of individual bus stops.” Kiernan wondered if money could be saved by outsourcing nothing to third parties. Osborne said lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative (LPVEC) asks are comparable with other busing companies. He also noted the services are “very regionalized.”
School Committee member Bill Bontempi pointed out that the district is a member of the collaborative and lost income from busing may be passed on to the district as an increase in other collaborative programs.
There are also five full-time equivalent (FTE) positions that have been reduced from social emotional learning and intervention staff due to the “waning” of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which are set to expire in 2024. Additionally, $850,000 from the district’s excess and deficiency account have been added to offset the budget.
Assessments
The town assessments are composed of a state-calculated minimum local contribution, transportation assessment, MRHS debt assessment and discretionary costs. The total assessment for Hampden is $8.64 million, with the minimum local contribution accounting for $5.74 million. Wilbraham faces an assessment of $29.4 million, with an $18.23 million minimum local contribution.
The average assessment in the district has increased by $766,430, or 2.29 percent, over the past five years. Osborne noted that HWRSD’s budget looks higher than surrounding towns but pointed out that regional districts have extra costs, such as guaranteed transportation and health insurance for employees and retirees. He said it is more accurate to compare the district with comparably sized regional districts such as Dighton-Rehoboth, Freetown-Lakeville and Whitman-Hanson. Looking at these districts, HWRSD’s budget has increased by an average of 2.08 percent over the past three years, “significantly below” the average increases in the other districts, which range from 4.15 to 8.18 percent.
Osborne noted that districts statewide are struggling with the same cost increases and pressures from inflation and the OOD hike. He also noted that, like two-thirds of school districts in the state, HWRSD does not qualify for Student Opportunity Act funding.
Separate from the budget are capital needs at MRHS. All the towns see to the needs of the elementary and middle schools within their borders, the cost of capital projects at MRHS are split in keeping with the regional agreement. On the list for FY24 is the upgrade of wireless access points for $144,000, $125,000 for a railing on the second floor, $54,000 in new projectors and monitors, camera and security upgrades costing $75,000 and $30,000 for the installation of “mini split” air conditioning and environmental control units in certain classrooms. Osborne explained that the units are needed to meet the needs of student individual educational programs, which the district is legally required to fulfill. The total cost of the capital upgrades is $428,000, of which Hampden is responsible for $85,000 and Wilbraham for $343,000.
Regarding the railing, Kiernan said, “We’re going to spend money on a guardrail but we’re not going to spend money on a fundamental position that would help prevent the guardrail from being needed in the first place,” referring to the reduction of five social-emotional learning FTEs.
Provost told him that while the positions would still be “very helpful,” the district was able to cut $1.04 million from the initial draft budget by making reductions where possible and finding increases to revenue, such as reaffirming the district’s commitment to the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program, reconfiguring transportation, recalculating the circuit breaker, eliminating Strategic Plan initiatives and trimming administrative compensation.
Despite this, there is a gap of nearly $800,000 between the budgeted assessment for Wilbraham and the amount town leadership said it is willing to pay. To bridge this divide, Provost said the district would have to cut 11 paraprofessionals, one counselor at Green Meadows School and a writing workshop teacher at Wilbraham Middle School, as well as half an FTE position for a computer science teacher and half an FTE position for a physical education teacher. HWRSD would also need to cut an administrative assistant for athletics, special education teacher, two physical education teachers, and nursing staff at the high school. Spanish classes for seventh grade and below, all freshman sports and a planned special education program would have to be eliminated. The district would have to defer preventative maintenance and reduce software, supplies, legal services, memberships and textbook line items. Finally, the cost of parking, student activities, graduation and athletic fees would also have to go up. Provost said the last of these would disproportionately affect low-income families.
“I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” Provost said.
School Committee Vice Chair Maura Ryan suggested trimming the $45,000 increase to the School Committee budget account. She said fewer members can be sent to conferences or professional development opportunities, but Bontempi spoke about the benefits of conferences for networking and learning about other districts.
Kiernan noted the cuts in the budget are more student-facing than in the assessment-related reductions Provost listed. The Superintendent explained that the cuts in the budget were those that would be least impactful to services but have a high impact on cost savings.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy said the cuts would be “painful.” He urged the community to contact legislators “to let them know you are not happy” and town officials, “to say you support the budget.”
Bontempi called the cuts “breathtaking” and said he “could not in good conscience support that.”
Kiernan said, “We are on the way to mediocrity.”
District reconfiguration
School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau shared the Strategic Planning Committee’s work regarding district reconfiguration, an action called for in the district’s Strategic Plan. She said 136 options for building reconfiguration “to take advantage of underutilized spaces” were considered by the committee. The goals of the reconfiguration would be to eliminate overcrowding, maximize space, reduce transitions between schools and save costs. Kiernan pointed out that in the reconfiguration goals, “nowhere is there academic achievement.”
Without changing the regional agreement, one option was identified that fulfills the goals. Mile Tree Elementary would continue to offer grades pre-K-1 and Green Meadows School would remain a pre-K-8 school, while Thornton W. Burgess (TWB) would continue its special programs. Stony Hill School would only serve grades 2-3 and Soule Road School would offer grades 4-5. grades 6-7 in Wilbraham would be housed at Wilbraham Middle School (WMS) and the high school would serve grades 8-12.
If the district regionalized grades 8-12, there are two configuration options. In both scenarios, Mile Tree would remain pre-K-1, WMS would house grades 6-7 and MRHS would serve students in grades 8-12, while Green Meadows would become pre-K-7. In the first configuration, TWB would continue special programs, Stony Hill would be a grades 2-3 school and Soule Road would have grades 4-5. In the other configuration there would be no programing at TWB. and both Stony Hill and Soule Road would have grades 2-5.
Regionalization of grades 7-12, grades 5-12 offer variations on these arrangements. Regionalizing grades 6-12 presents four configurations, with two that would see grades 6-7 at TWB and one that would eliminate Stony Hill and make WMS a grade 1-5 school.
Kennedy, who is also on the Strategic Planning Committee, assured that all the configurations had been narrowed down, “nothing is off the table.”
Caruana said she was concerned about how MRHS could schedule enough lunches for five grades. She also said the middle school model is “supposed to be the best,” and was uncomfortable making WMS grades 1-5. Provost said all the configurations have their challenges.
The educators’ union, Hampden-Wilbraham Educational Association, has been invited to the next Strategic Planning Committee meeting on March 27 at 5:30 p.m. Boudreau said the committee also plans to meet with Hampden Advisory Board, Wilbraham Finance Committee, the Capital Planning committees and Boards of Selectmen from both towns, as well as the community for input.