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Date: 1/23/2023
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources Aaron Osborne updated the School Committee on several budget items where the costs have exceeded their estimates for this time of year.
The number of educator absences that required a substitute in 2022 was 74 percent above pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. Osborne estimated this year will likely see a similar trend.
“Significant” increases to natural gas and electric utilities are having an impact on the district, Osborne said. While HWRSD was not able to predict the extent of inflation that would occur in fiscal year 2023 (FY23) when the budget was set in spring 2022, he said increases will be planned for and built into the FY24 budget. Health insurance is also over budget.
Osborne said the district still has “significant” funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) that can be used to counteract these overages, as needed. He also said that districts across the state are experiencing similar overages, as many of the issues are out of the schools’ control.
School Committee member Bill Bontempi asked Osborne for an update on the electrical issue at Minnechaug Regional High School (MRHS) that has resulted in the school being lit overnight. Likewise, during the public comment period, resident Joe Roberts said the lighting situation was “really frustrating” as a taxpayer. He noted there was a lot of information being shared on social media and in town forums, but he wanted to hear facts from the School Committee.
The school’s decade-old lighting system experienced equipment failures in late 2021. Osborne has previously stated that if the building’s lights are turned off at night, as they are designed to be, they may not come back on due to this failure. The district had expected to receive parts to repair the proprietary system in early 2022, but supply chain issues and the sale of the manufacturer led to difficulties obtaining the parts.
With the parts now procured, HWRSD had hired a company to repair the system during the winter break. However, Osborne said those repairs were not done despite the timeline having been specified in writing. School Committee Vice Chair Maura Ryan suggested charging the company for some of the electrical costs between now and the next possible repair window – April vacation. Osborne agreed and said he would “try to hold their feet to the fire.”
Online document access
Director of Student Services Gina Roy informed the committee that the district had begun using Ready Sign, a digital signature tool, for parents and guardians to sign off on individualized education plans (IEPs). Ready Sign can be used on mobile devices or desktop computers. There are hard copies available, as well. Similarly, preschool applications have been made available online to families through Google Docs.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy expressed concern about the security of Google Docs and its use with confidential information. Roy said she would investigate it.
Superintendent’s update
Superintendent John Provost had been asked at the prior School Committee meeting if discrepancies in arrival and dismissal times were creating inequities between the amount of instructional “time on learning” at Green Meadows and Wilbraham Middle School (WMS). After reviewing the situation, he found that both schools were providing the same amount of learning time despite the variations.
However, the superintendent also found that both middle schools were shy of the required number of structured learning time hours for the year. WMS was scheduled to provide 97 hours, 13 hours fewer than needed, while Green Meadows was slated to come in 13.5 hours short, with 96.5 hours total. Provost identified additional professional development days as the reason for the time loss. He said that he was “glad” the issue had been identified with several months left to the school year, as slight changes to switching classes and other minor adjustments over an extended period would be minimally disruptive.
Provost told the committee that a family reunification drill had been conducted at Green Meadows and the “technically challenging” process went to plan.
He also announced that a town hall-style event, “Let’s Talk About Underage Drinking,” would take place Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. in the MRHS Auditorium.