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Date: 5/23/2023
PALMER — Old Mill Pond School’s long-term leadership has been chosen.
Interim Superintendent of Schools Colleen Culligan told the School Committee at its May 17 meeting that current interim Principal Holly-Beth Riopel was selected for the full-time position. Riopel was recommended to Culligan by a panel made up of department and community stakeholders.
“Ms. Riopel is an experienced assistant principal currently working in the role as interim. She has held several leadership roles during her school career, which has been in Palmer,” Culligan said. “She has managed curriculum, team meetings, instructional lead facilitation, budget, strategic planning and she also brings significant expertise from her experience working in the special education office.”
Culligan added that Riopel has guided the school through a “significant period of comprehensive change and provided them with much needed stability and support.”
Culligan said there was a “large number of highly qualified candidates,” and the screening panel was “very impressed” with the high level of interest in the position, which she said spoke to the school’s strong reputation and community standing.
Riopel said before beginning her report to the School Committee that she was honored to accept the position and appreciated the community’s support.
Riopel’s interim tag will be officially removed on July 1.
Culligan reported to the committee that after meetings with the town, interim Finance and Operations Director Sara Menard worked with school principals to further trim the school department’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget. Through these efforts, she said, the deficit facing the department only reflects the state-imposed 14 percent increase in out-of-district special education costs.
Menard said the department is requesting a one-time allocation of $200,000 from the town to fund that increase. She explained reimbursement for those costs would be realized in the FY25 budget.
“You may recall from previous discussions that we do receive funds related to this through our circuit breaker but that that is essentially on a one-year lag, so because the 14 percent will be in effect for next year, we won’t receive reimbursement for those funds until [FY25], which therefore creates a shortfall for [FY24],” she said, adding that this issue is statewide and not exclusive to Palmer. “Some communities are doing what we are, asking for their towns to fund that difference … Others are unfortunately in a position to have to ask for [a Proposition 2 ½] override from their communities. We are fortunate to not have to do that, but we are asking the town to help us with that.”
Menard said she had meetings with the Town Manager Ryan McNutt and Town Accountant Gabriela Potter, who have forwarded the provided information to the Town Council’s Budget Subcommittee, which was scheduled to meet on May 24, after Reminder Publishing’s press time. Menard and Culligan indicated they planned to attend that meeting, but as of the School Committee meeting, they were unsure if the school budget would be on the agenda.
The Budget Subcommittee’s discussion would only be the first step in the process.
“After they have finished their budget process, then we would also need to have the School Committee have the public hearing for our budget as well as then the School Committee vote. Then the Town Council would be able to vote on the whole budget because then they would have everything,” Menard said.
She added that she anticipated a determination on that funding would be made soon as the town’s budget must be approved before June 30. The Town Council normally meets on the second Monday of every month; if it follows this schedule, the next meeting would be June 12.
“It’s just before our meeting so if they do [discuss the budget], we may need to have a special meeting to [conduct a budget hearing] before then, but in past years, my understanding is they usually have two meetings in June — one, their regular meeting and then one, they have a special budget meeting — but we don’t know yet if that’s what’s going to happen,” Menard said.
She also suggested posting a School Committee budget hearing in advance to allow time if there is an accelerated timeline.