Pittsfield School Committee Sees Breakdown of FY23 Expenditures

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Public Schools spent a total of $135.8 million on education in fiscal year 2023. 

While the majority is attributed to the budget approved by the School Committee, this also includes a healthy amount of state aid and funds from other city departments.

On Wednesday, the committee received a presentation on education spending outside of the district budget and an update on the governor's proposed budget for fiscal 2025.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kristen Behnke said the administration wants to make sure that the committee and public are aware that there is a lot of education spending that is not confined to the school operating budget.

"As part of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act, school districts in Massachusetts are required to report annually to [the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] on something called the financial end-of-year report," she said.

"In Pittsfield, we have expenditures on three main sources: there's the School Committee budget that you approve each year, there's city of Pittsfield departmental budgets that we're going to talk more about as part of this presentation, and then there's our federal grants, state grants and revolving funds which over the last few years has grown significantly in part because of the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds."

Some $22.7 million (17 percent) of the expenditures were from federal and state grants and revolving funds, $40.8 million (30 percent) was from city departmental expenditures, and $72.3 million (53 percent) was expended from the School Committee budget in FY23.

Some of the largest buckets of spending include:

• insurance for current employees: $13.1M
• school choice and charter tuition costs: $7.5M
• employer retirement contributions to Pittsfield Retirement Board: $5.4M
• insurance for retired school department employees: $4.5M
• maintenance of school buildings and grounds: $1.8M
• long term debt n school construction: $1.7M
• student resource officers:  $171,000

The $1.8 million spent on the schools' buildings and grounds maintenance includes work from the Building Maintenance Department and the Parks Department's work on athletic fields and parking lots.

These numbers come from the Net School Spending Agreement

"Any municipal district is required to have a Net School Spending Agreement. They're actually approved by the commissioner of education," Behnke said.

"Ours was from 2004. We looked at numbers again in about 2016. When we looked at the agreement again, we decided not to make any changes to the language of the agreement but we did make some changes to how some of the numbers were calculated and what was included as part of the overall agreement at that time."

Pittsfield City Council Weighs in on 'Crisis' in Public Schools

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
08:59PM / Monday, December 23, 2024

A half-dozen people addressed the City Council from the floor of Monday's meeting, including Valerie Anderson, right.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — After expressing anger and outrage and making numerous calls for accountability and transparency, the 11 members of the City Council on Monday voted to support the School Committee in seeking an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct by staff members at Pittsfield High School that have come to light in recent weeks.

 

At the close of a month that has seen three PHS administrators put on administrative leave, including one who was arrested on drug trafficking charges, the revelation that the district is facing a civil lawsuit over inappropriate conduct by a former teacher and that a staff member who left earlier in the year is also under investigation at his current workplace, the majority of the council felt compelled to speak up about the situation.

 

"While the City Council does not have jurisdiction over the schools … we have a duty to raise our voices and amplify your concerns and ensure this crisis is met with the urgency it demands," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey said.

 

About two dozen community members attended the special meeting of the council, which had a single agenda item.

 

Four of the councilors precipitated the meeting with a motion that the council join the School Committee in its search for an investigation and that the council, "be included in the delivery of any disclosures, interim reports or findings submitted to the city."

 

Last week, the School Committee decided to launch that investigation. On Monday, City Council President Peter White said the School Committee has a meeting scheduled for Dec. 30 to authorize its chair to enter negotiations with the Springfield law firm of Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas to conduct that probe.

 

Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre, the principal author of the motion of support, was one of several members who noted that the investigation process will take time, and she, like Kavey, acknowledged that the council has no power over the public schools beyond its approval of the annual district budget.