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Date: 3/23/2022
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM –Several changes were made to the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) budget after Wilbraham expressed discomfort with the proposed assessments.
The total draft budget of $51.04 million was dropped to $50.28 million in the final version. Instead of an increase of $758,808, or 1.51 percent, over FY22, the district is seeking $699,868, or 1.39 percent, said Director of Finance, Operations and Human Resources, Aaron Osborne.
HWRSD’s initial estimates, made in mid-February, produced an operating assessment for Wilbraham of $26,624,299, but over the course of the next week, the Wilbraham Finance Committee indicated it would be able to fund $26,484,490. Adjustments were made and the draft budget presented on March 3 reflected that figure. The Finance Committee voted on March 16 to further reduce the assessment that the town was willing to absorb, to $26,394,711, almost $230,000 under the district’s initial projection. Including the obligatory debt payment for the Minnechaug Regional High School (MRHS) building, this brings Wilbraham’s total contribution to $27.81 million.
Due to the way assessments are determined under the regional agreement, a decrease in one town’s assessment leads to a proportional decrease in the other’s assessment. Hampden’s total assessment decreased from $8.31 million in the draft budget to $8.25 million in the final version.
The district’s obligatory cost increases remain the same, at $2.12 million for health insurance, retirement contributions, contractual salary increases, transportation and out-of-district placements. Considering the adjusted assessments, Osborne said changes were made to the budget to fill in the gap. An extra $100,000 was added to the budget from HWRSD’s Excess & Deficiency (E&D) fund, which holds unexpended funds from previous years to be used as needed. Instead of $175,000 going to fund the district’s operation this year, $275,000 will be used.
Osborne said the money will be replaced with an expected addition to the transportation reimbursement from the state later this year. He said this use of E&D “is not horrifyingly irresponsible.”
Another area of the budget that changed from the draft presented March 3, is the “capital needs” for the district and for MRHS, in particular.
Rather than the $1 million requested from the towns to replace the stadium seating at MRHS’s Falcon Field and bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the district now plans to take $50,000 from HWRSD’s capital fund and repair the seating. The amount of money spent on the repairs will not require the district to bring it into compliance. Osborne said the repairs will extend the seating’s life by five years, but the deteriorating structure will need to be replaced at that time.
The Capital Fund will also finance an upgrade of the district’s phone system at a cost of $100,000, new CAD classroom computers for $30,000 and choral riser replacement for $20,000. These three items were originally slated to be paid for through the towns’ assessments. A project updating the MRHS sound system to pipe audio from the auditorium into the cafeteria, conceived to facilitate Town Meeting overflow, was canceled.
The only capital expenditure coming from town assessments is the upgrade of MRHS’s network switches, which are original to the building. That project accounts for $60,000 of Hampden’s assessment and $240,000 of Wilbraham’s assessment. Both towns have discussed using funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to pay for the switches.
The topic of increasing the number of school choice students in the district was examined. Osborne said adding up to 73 school choice students, throughout four of the district’s six schools, will bring in $365,000 as the district receives a minimum of $5,000 per school choice student. Osborne stated the numbers are maximums and the schools are not likely to receive the full allotment. He said the budget relies on receiving $250,000, or 50 students, but said placing all 73 students is “very doable,” while keeping class sizes to 20 students or less.
Osborne explained that adding students to the student body of those grades will allow for three full classes per grade, rather than having to condense the students into two classrooms with as many as 24 students each.
School Committee member Patrick Kiernan looked at the 30 students who would be added to six classrooms across Grades 1 and 3 at Green Meadows School. “That’s 25 percent. That scares me,” he said. Kiernan also cautioned against relying on school choice to fill budget gaps. “I think school choice is important,” he said, but asked, “why are we doing it?”
School Committee member Bill Bontempi also expressed concern about the percentage of school choice placements. “A quarter of your class is not necessarily part of your community,” he said, calling it a “dilution effect.”
“I hate the word ‘dilution,’” said School Committee member Sherrill Caruana. She said it means that the whole is originally too strong and asked that it not be used again. Turning to the use of school choice to keep class sizes low, she said, “The number one predictor of success is low class size.”
Resident Joe Lawless asked why two new teachers were being hired while class sizes are falling, but School Committee Vice Chair Maura Ryan explained that those teachers taught the “bubble” or overflow classes in kindergarten and second-grade last year and will simply be moving up to teach the same kids as they move to the next grade.
Discussing the addition of an assistant principal at MRHS, who would focus on social-emotional wellness, Kiernan said, “We did a disservice in our budget two years ago when we removed an assistant principal from this building.” He said teachers and administrators had been asking for that position to be renewed ever since.
Grant Writer
A resident suggested an assistant principal and a grant writer be hired from within the district. Kiernan commented that many staff have come up through the district in the past, “and we’re stronger for it.” School Committee member Sean Kennedy warned that the districts he had researched who had given the grant writer position to someone already in the district had brought in less money than what HWRSD had acquired without a grant writer.
Bontempi said he “fully supports” hiring a grant writer and if it doesn’t bear fruit, then the position can be cut. “You’re not going to be able to balance everything by cutting,” staff and programs, he said, adding the district needs “creative ideas,” and “shooting down” potential money-making changes is “irresponsible.”
Superintendent Search
School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau presented a draft timeline of the superintendent search process, with initial steps, such as determining the composition of the screening committee and developing an invitational letter for applicants, taken immediately. A community needs assessment would be done in mid-April, applications would be reviewed in late April and interviews conducted in early May. Finalists would be announced mid-May and the final selection would happen at the end of June.
“I’m going to go on the record and say this is a bad idea,” Bontempi asserted. He said there could not be “meaningful” community involvement within the given timeframe.
Boudreau told Bontempi that the firm chosen by the School Committee, The New England School Developmental Council, had been in business since 1982 and this was a timeline it believed to be appropriate. “There’s no conversation we had that said we want to cut corners,” she said, emphasizing the timeline is not set in stone and could be sped up or stretched out. It is not a problem if a new superintendent has not been chosen by Superintendent Albert Ganem’s June 30 departure.
“We are in charge, but [NESDEC] are the experts,” Boudreau said, “but thank you for your perspective.”