Central Berkshire Regional Eyes 3% Budget Increase

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School District is looking at a $1 million budget increase for fiscal 2024. 
 
The School Committee on Thursday gave initial approval to an operating budget of $30,078,694 that is up 3.42 percent, or $994,646, from this year's $29,084,048.
 
The approved tentative capital budget, as recommended by the finance subcommittee, is  $2,110,239. This is down $51,354 over this year, or about 2.4 percent.
 
Together, they total about a 3 percent increase over this year.
 
The district's projected revenue sources amount to $30,078,694, with assessments from the seven towns contributing 59.09 percent, or $17,772,221.
 
The second largest contributor is Chapter 70 state education aid, which makes up 30.76 percent, or $9,251,488. 
 
The district should also receive $1,555,102 in transportation funds, $135,000 for Medicaid, $40,000 in miscellaneous and interest income revenue, and $75,000 in charter school reimbursements. The committee voted to commit $1,249,883 of the district's Excess & Deficiency funds to the FY24 budget. 
 
Dalton, as the largest of the seven communities in the district, is responsible for more than half the operating budget, or 61.72 percent, base on enrollment. Its assessment is projected at $9.1 million, up about $220,738, or 2.48 percent over this year. Its portion of the capital budget is expected to decrease by $22,124 to $1,269,442.
 
In fact, only Becket and Windsor can expect an increase in their capital assessments to total $265,567 and $87,747, respectively.
 
The Dalton Select Board and Finance Committee expect to discuss the school budget at Monday's Select Board meeting. 
 
Other projected operating budget assessments are Becket at $2,675,439, up $154,788; Cummington at $703,278, up $40,320; Hinsdale at $2,680,540, up $111,971; the town of Washington at $768,974, up $7,515; and Windsor at $880,899, up $46,205.
 
Reasons for the rise in costs include a salary and benefits budget projected to increase $347,000, including insurance premiums. Officials had prepared for a higher jump in premiums but the numbers are coming in at 1 percent, plus a 2 percent in anticipation of new employees. 
 
The contractual salary salary budget will be $19,372,026 in FY24. It includes an extra $30,000 for a new career coordinator position at the high school. This position has been grant funded the past two years and administrators would like to keep it on as a fully funded post.
 
The committee voted to approve retirees benefits in the amount of $2,103,808. This is a 7.5 percent increase from the previous year with figures provided by the Berkshire County Retirement System.
 
The district is also proposing technology upgrades that will bring that line item to $568,381 from $452,765. This will cover the servers and cameras as well as Open Architects, the new districtwide educational software. It also includes software reallocated from the individual school lines.
 
The costs for the district's fiber connections has also increased with its new three-year contract. 
 
"It wasn't too much of an increase but with this increase, we are doubling our bandwidth in the schools," Director of Finance and Operations Greg Boino said. 
 
The pupil transportation budget is projected to increase approximately 3 percent in the second year of the three-year contract. This increase includes transportation costs for special education.
 
The special education budget is projected to increase by by 6.38 percent to $4,652,888, because of transportation costs. 
 
The Business, Finance, and Human resource budget is projected to increase 74 percent, from $382,788 to $666,070. This increase is due to the principal and payment on the new Wahconah Regional High School.
 
The principal and interest payment is approximately $268,000. This item will move into capital budget once the project project is audited by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The overall budget for this line item is approximately $340,000. 
 
The property and liability insurance line item is anticipating a 10 percent increase; this will likely change when the correct figures become available. The Medical Health line item is projected to increase 10.11 percent to a total of $375,659. Some school nurses are moving to a new step and the cost of nursing supplies has increased.
 
The districtwide budget is projected to be $2,618,444, 3.20 percent higher than this year's $2,537,254. The School Committee will increase to $86,394 from $86,103; the superintendent budget will be up 0.65 percent, from $419,802 to $422,529; and school leadership budget is projected to decrease by 9.39 percent to $700,062. 

Tags: CBRSD,   fiscal 2024,   

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Pittsfield School Committee Stands With LGBTQ-plus Students

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee last week affirmed its commitment to protecting LGBTQ-plus students.

On Wednesday, the committee adopted a Safe Schools Resolution that declares the Pittsfield Public Schools a safe space for all students regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation and a safe space to explore gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

It was brought forward by William Garrity, who was inspired by the resolution made by Worcester School Committee member Susan Mailman. Garrity, who graduated from Taconic High School in 2022, said the school had a "good-sized" population of LGBTQ-plus students.

He asserted that students exist in the schools and that the city needs to ensure they are protected and feel safe.

"It sickens me that the Trump administration wants to go after this group of students just because of who they are. These students deserve to have their identity respected and to receive a fair and proper education," he said.

"It is also clear that the Trump administration is going after schools and states who provide protections for transgender and LGBTQ-plus students, as we have seen with the state of Maine this past weekend [of Feb. 22-23]. Given these attacks, I believe is our obligation to stand up to this bigotry, hate, and, quite frankly, bullying being pushed by the federal government to protect our transgender and LGBTQ plus students."

(A Republican Maine state representative, Laurel Libby, had posted photos and details to Facebook of a high school transgender athlete. She was censured along party lines and the president threatened to withhold funding from the state for not complying with his executive order banning transgender girls from participating in women's sports.)

Garrity said the Worcester School Committee "watered down" Mailman's proposal and removed LGBTQ-plus specific language from it. He's glad not to see these conversations in Pittsfield.

"When a certain group of our students are being targeted for who they are, I believe it's our obligation to clearly condemn this bigotry and hate," he said.

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