Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 5/3/2022
HATFIELD – The school department has consistently scraped to save nickels and dimes, but this year the change jar is empty. As a result, taxpayers will see an increase in the school levy of 9.51 percent.
According to Christy Boudreau, a member of the Budget Subcommittee, that figure would be much larger if school services were regionalized.
“If we … spent at the rate these regional schools are spending,” Englehardt said, the district’s budget “would be $2.5 million a year above the budget we currently have.”
Boudreau reached that comparison after research on per pupil costs at Frontier, Pioneer Valley and Mohawk regional districts. Hatfield’s local per pupil cost for the coming fiscal year is estimated to be $17,278. Englehardt emphasized the figure represents only savings on educating local resident students. A drop in the numbers of local students, though, may have induced the specter of regionalization.
“What we do see,” Boudreau told the School Committee, “is a 15 percent decline and that’s in the local student numbers.”
While Boudreau's comparisons drew the focus off the budget increase, she structured her discussion with the committee to respond to questions from community members. School choice came up. Boudreau sought to clarify its role in local schools and allay fears that income from the program is falling off.
Boudreau said incoming school choice student numbers are down 13 percent this year, a dip that corresponds with a big bump a few years back, kids who are now departing. Boudreau said 32 resident students go elsewhere through school choice while 117 come to Hatfield schools through the program. School choice students bring $5,000 yearly from the sending district, money that is important for the sustainability of local programs.
“It might feel like there’s a mass exodus,” Boudreau said, “but the numbers don’t show that at all. In fact, we are losing fewer and fewer students per year.”
Boudreau found the district is down one student each level compared to the 10-year average of school choice enrollments. She said the perception of falling enrollments is due to the variety of venues where local kids are taught. About 93 local children do not attend the public schools.
“That’s a fairly consistent number,” Boudreau said. Those students go to the tech school, a charter school, are home schooled, or attend a private or parochial school. “Year in, year out, it’s consistently the same number of kids.”
Employee turnover at the schools created an opportunity to save funds. This year’s budget will see reductions in the cost of the director of student services and the superintendent position. Those long-term employees are earning considerably more than those who will replace them in the fall.
“Frankly, we had a huge savings,” Boudreau said. “While we did an amazing job of filling the posts with capable people, at the most affordable rates we could find, we did find an additional $25,000.”
Boudreau sought to put a positive spin on new budget challenges. A special needs class, with needed staffing, was added this year. That will cost the district $137,000. Boudreau said that out-of-district placement for those students would have cost the district $300,000.
Discussion revealed that one driver of the budget increase is grants. The district has fewer grant funds to work with this year. According to the budget, the third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) grant money will contribute $91,256, with scant other grant revenues on the spreadsheet. The School Choice account has also been emptied.
Committee Chair Rebecca Bench didn’t see much in the budget that isn’t essential. She noted that in the past few years many programs have been discontinued, including middle school sports, choir, and American Sign Language. French and health have been restructured or cut back.
“Those are all important services to our students,” Bench said. “They’re things that bring students in, that make students want to stay. We’re building up our school district with these things…Any further cuts, it means a program.”
The School Committee voted to recommend the budget to Town Meeting, scheduled this year for May 10. In prior meetings, the Select Board and Finance Committee also moved to recommend the budget to voters.