Pittsfield School Committee Sees $72M Budget for FY23By Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:20AM / Thursday, March 24, 2022 | |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee on Wednesday got a first look at the proposed $72 million school budget for fiscal 2023.
The budget of $72,398,262 is a 7.56 percent, or $5,086,562, increase from this year. Most of the increase is in contractual obligations.
There will be a School Committee budget workshop on Monday and, later that day, a joint meeting with the City Council followed by a public hearing for the budget on Wednesday.
"You'll notice a large amount of the increase is contractual obligations according to current agreements with the [Pittsfield Educational Administrators' Association], the [United Educators of Pittsfield] and proposed with the [American Federation of Teachers]," Superintendent Joseph Curtis explained when student representative William Garrity queried him about the increase.
"So that contractual increase is not typical."
Within the budget is $1,958,347 for administration, $55,762,847 for instructional, $4,523,341 for other school services, $6,372,746 for operations and maintenance, $472,358 for fixed costs, $68,074 for adult learning, $234,047 for acquisition of fixed assets, and $3,626,502 for tuition payments.
With $570,000 in school choice revenues and $50,000 in Richmond tuition revenues, the total budget amounts to $73,018,262.
During executive session, the committee discussed and voted on bargaining agreements with the Local 1315 AFT that includes bus drivers and attendants, cafeteria workers, custodians, paraprofessionals, and educational secretaries.
At the beginning of the meeting, the room was filled with AFT members advocating for an increase in wages. There was testimony from bus drivers, paraprofessionals, cafeteria workers, and parents about the demanding duties of their jobs and the need for better compensation.
"Tonight I'm here to say I'm angry, very angry, I'm angry that today we're no closer to settling this contract than we were seven months ago, I'm angry because me, my staff, and co-workers continuously, we're short-staffed because we cannot get employees to work at this wage," cafeteria worker Debi Rooney said.
"I'm angry because the [cafeteria] keeps losing very good longtime employees because of the low pay, I'm angry because when we're short-staffed, I'm told, 'Well you might have to just cut things off the menu' and who does that affect? That hurts the children," she said.
"Why should I not feed them the full menu because I don't have enough employees to get the food out that’s on the menu? I'm angry because you say you don't have the money to pay us a livable wage, but we all know that's a big fat lie, it's a big, fat lie."
Rooney added that the work the AFT members do matters and they demand to be paid the living wage they are asking for.
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