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Date: 4/4/2023
EASTHAMPTON — At its March 28 meeting, the Easthampton School Committee approved a nearly $21.4 million budget for fiscal year 2024.
Superintendent Dr. Allison LeClair and Director of Business Services Nicholas Bernier presented the budget to the School Committee and public after months of collaboration with the schools, City Council, the Finance Committee and the mayor.
“The budget seeks to align personnel and services as students continue to recover from pandemic-related learning loss and trauma,” said LeClair.
The budget includes anticipated amounts of nearly $8.7 million in Chapter 70 state aid and the last of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds, which will expire in June 2024.
The budget means the loss of two grant-funded paraeducators at Mountain View School, who will likely be absorbed into other positions because of their seniority. It also means the loss of a half-time position at the high school, which will be absorbed by a teacher who is taking a sabbatical next year. The budget adds a physical therapist and a board-certified behavior analyst, positions that had been contracted services before this budget.
“The student needs that we have demand that,” explained LeClair of adding the two positions.
The budget will also allow class sizes in kindergarten through fifth grade to stay at 18 to 21 students per class. This will involve adding a teacher to either kindergarten or first grade and that decision will be made later this school year when kindergarten registration numbers are finalized.
The total personnel costs are up 6% from last year, while expenses are up about 3%. Roughly $2 million of the school budget comes from grant funding, such as Title 1 and Circuit Breaker.
“I want to give thanks to the administration team who really makes difficult decisions each year,” said LeClair. “We have worked pretty much all year long in developing this budget.”
“We really took a look at what we could do,” explained Bernier.
The budget book is available for viewing on the town website.
School Calendar 2023-2024
The School Committee also approved the calendar for next year. The year will begin the week of August 28, with new teachers reporting that Monday and all teachers having professional development on Aug. 29 and 30. Students in grades 1 through 12 will start school on August 31. Kindergarteners and preschoolers will begin on Sept. 5. These starting dates would put the last day of school on June 14, 2024, with no snow days.