DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School District is anticipating a 3.35 percent increase to its operating budget for fiscal 2025, which translates to nearly a little more than $1 million over this year.

 

This year's budget is $30,301,466, and next year is forecast at $31,315,659, a difference of $1,014,193.

 

Prior to presenting the draft at the Jan. 11 meeting, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis emphasized that these initial projections may change because there are still a lot of unknowns surrounding it, including health insurance and the governor's budget.

 

"This budget for us is really an ever-evolving process. Budget for us begins at the conclusion of our last budget season so as the year goes on we always have a mock budget, we're always adjusting that budget," Blake-Davis said. 

 

"For us, while we're just presenting this to you tonight this is a process that continues throughout the year." 

 

The administration told the School Committee at the beginning of the year that it is trying to design a fiscally responsible budget for the seven member towns while "supporting high-quality instruction" that aligns with "district resources" including "time, funding sources, human resources, and property."

 

In addition to providing "all students with high quality equitable learning opportunities that foster student achievement through tiered systems of support both academically and socially & emotionally that are consistent with the Strategic Plan."

 

Blake-Davis also stressed that one of the things not included in this initial budget is the grant funding that they search for and utilize. 

 

"Grant funding actually does provide resources for us as a district and that's something that we are continually searching for, we're continually working," she said. 

 

The district has been trying to collaborate with its seven towns to make sure they know when the budget meetings are so they are as informed as possible, Blake-Davis said. 

 

"We want this to feel collaborative. We want it to feel like we're working with our community," she said. 

 

Increases the district is expecting in FY25 are from active employee health insurance, retiree health insurance, special education out of district tuition, temporary ban principal and interest payment, pupil transportation, and Berkshire County Retirement Contribution. 

 

It is unclear what the active employee health insurance rate will be set at but the Berkshire Health Group will be meeting on Jan. 29 to set the rate, Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino said. 

 

Based on figures at previous health group meetings, he is expecting an increase of approximately 10 percent bringing the cost to about $453,000, which includes premiums and the new employees expected to enter the plan. 

 

This January there was a 5.5 percent increase in the retiree health insurance that the district budgeted for; 5 percent, or approximately $105,000 for that line item, is being set aside.

 

Another big piece of the budget that needs to be considered is the special education out-of-district tuition, Boino said. This line item is expected to cost $356,000.  

 

Last year, there were a few students who transferred to out-of-district schools after the final budget in March, so those tuitions were not included in last year's budget but need to be included in this year's, he said. 

 

The temporary principal and interest payment for the high school is expected to cost $121,500, but the district hopes that this is the last year seeing this line item. 

 

"We are very hopeful that we will be moving into the FY2026 budget with the [Massachusetts School Building Authority] audit done and we will be able to go out to bond for that remaining portion of the [Wahconah Regional High School] project," Boino said. 

 

"If you remember, quite a few years ago we went out for 80 percent of the project. We have to go out for the remaining piece, so at most the 20 percent. Right now, things are looking so we should be coming in under budget for that piece"

 

The district is going into year three of a five-year contract for pupil transportation, which has a 3 percent increase year over year, bringing the line item to $50,000. 

 

The Berkshire County Retirement contribution increased by 8 percent bringing it to $63,000. This is set by the retirement board but is expected to be the last large increase because it has set up "a new plan for contributions so it should start leveling out in the following years," Boino said. 

 

The district met with its finance committee in December and January when it was recommended tp use some of the rural aid funding to help offset the FY25 budget. 

 

"We were trying to be as creative as possible to use these funds," Boino said. 

 

This year the district received approximately $1.3 million in rural aid. 

 

The current plan is to prepay special education tuition, which is allowed for up to three months of a students' tuition. The cost of the three months would be $380,000, which will not be included in the FY25 budget. 

 

Boino and the director of technology are looking into other expenses that they can prepay in June with $400,000 in FY24 rural aid money.

 

There isn't a guarantee how much the district can expect to receive for the FY25 rural aid grant and the "state has been very cautious about what to expect in the future" but based on communications the district hopes to receive about the same amount as FY24, he said. 

 

Next year, they anticipate using $450,000 of FY25 rural aid to offset instructional salaries. 

 

"If, for some reason, we do not get rural aid there are backup plans that we can look at in the finance subcommittee to handle these salaries for next year," Boino said. 

 

As the largest of the seven communities in the district, Dalton's assessment is projected at $1,327,950, up about $63,325. 

 

Other projected operating budget assessments are Becket at $232,331, a $29,320 decrease; Cummington at $19,552, a $4,826 decrease; Hinsdale at $220,398, a $35,375 decrease; the town of Washington at $103,443, up $730; Windsor at $73469, a $13,970 decrease; and Peru at $117,707, up $15,662. 

 

This year, the district is expected to have approximately $3,556,423 in revenue from athletics, school choice, circuit breaker, food services, and grants. 

 

The district plans to discontinue a number of positions that were funded using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds. When the district received ESSER funding, it added supports, primarily Title 1 tutors. 

 

Becket Washington Elementary and Kittredge Elementary have two Title 1 tutors. One from each school will be discontinued as they are ESSER funded. Craneville Elementary has three Title 1 tutors, but two will not be budgeted for in FY24 as they were also funded through ESSER. 

 

Nessacus Regional Middle School will be losing two positions funded through ESSER — one Title 1 tutor and a half-time science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Interventionist. Wahconah Regional High School will also be losing a half-time STEM interventionist that was ESSER funded. 

 

"I think primarily funding is definitely component of [why these positions are being discontinued] I think that what we'd like to try to do and what we're seeing is we would like to move toward licensed or more certified positions in [English, Language, and Arts] and math because I think that's a need," Blake-Davis said. 

 

"I think if I were to move in any direction when it comes to support for students in some of those core areas like ELA and math I would like to ultimately at some point replace that with licensed teachers that have a specialty area in ELA or math, an example of that might be a reading interventionist."