WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to send its member towns a fiscal year 2026 spending plan that calls for increases of about 7 percent in the assessment to Lanesborough and 8 percent in the assessment to Williamstown.

 

The committee's annual public hearing and vote on a spending plan for the next academic year concludes a process that began in earnest for the panel in December.

 

That is when the School Committee first heard the budget requests from the middle-high school. At its January meeting, it heard the budget priorities for the district's two elementary schools.

 

The budget approved on Thursday reflects some of the requests from each of the three schools, but the majority of the $1.37 million hike to the district's gross operating budget is related to cost increases outside the district's control, interim Superintendent Joseph Bergeron explained.

 

A so-called level service budget, with no increase in discretionary spending, would drive nearly $1 million of that $1.37 million, Bergeron explained.

 

The non-discretionary increases include $550,000 related to a 16 percent increase in the district's health insurance costs, $340,000 for "contractual obligations, borrowing, transportation and supplies/services cost increases" and a reading specialist position at Mount Greylock that is driven by demand for special education.

 

As for costs that fall outside the concept of a level-service budget, the FY26 spending plan includes more money for 1-to-1 paraprofessionals ($100,000), a new elementary school math curriculum to replace one that is nearly 30 years old ($90,000) , classroom projectors for four classrooms at Lanesborough Elementary School ($30,000), expanded professional development for staff in math and literacy ($56,700) and the addition of two new teachers at Mount Greylock, one in Spanish and one in the Wellness Department.