DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School District is requesting a 2.54 percent increase for its fiscal 2023 budget. 

 

The proposed $29,084,048 spending plan is up $719,656 over this year's $28,364,392 budget. The bulk of that increase, $610,984, is expected to come from assessments to the seven member towns totaling $17,117,877. 

 

Dalton's assessment is $10,183,947, up 2.3 percent, or $232,531 over this year's $9,951,416 budget. It includes operating costs of $8,521,913, transportation at $363,721 and capital costs of $1,298,313. 

 

The assessments are based on enrollment, with Dalton having the highest number of students at about 800. The school district total has more than 1,500 students, with about 240 attending through tuition or school choice. 

 

The school district's Finance subcommittee Chair Rich Peters, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis and Director of Finance Gregory Boino presented the budget to the town's Finance Committee on Wednesday and said the increase was being driven by higher health insurance rates and salary negotiations. 

 

Finance Committee member Dr. Thomas Irwin said he was concerned that the committee was not taking into consideration the strain tax increase will have on individuals with fixed incomes. 

 

Chair William Drosehn also questioned how residents will take this large increase.  

 

"One of the things that we strive for here, town and school, and I hope the school system is striving for as well, we have to deliver under constraints of Proposition 2 1/2," Drosehn said. "We rely extremely heavily on residential [property] taxes so that's why we struggled to stay within those confines." 

 

 Blake-Davis said two drivers in the increase are contract negotiations and that Berkshire Health Group is projecting an 8 percent hike after staying level for a number of years.

 

 "Really the bulk of our budget is teacher salaries and insurance," she said. "Those are the big things for us." 

 

 School officials were not expecting this large an increase in health insurance but believe it may be due to the increase in the number of people starting to go back to doctors appointments after COVID-19. 

 

"We were not anticipating this kind of increase. I was anticipating a small increase. I have not seen an increase on premium since I believe FY 16 or 17," Boino said "I'm hoping not to see any percent increase in upcoming years. But looking back, I believe this group really should have looking at small 1 percent increase every year rather than the balloon increase."

 

The district is negotiating salaries with the teachers and paraprofessionals' unions but based on how the negotiations go, officials said there is the possibility to have money left over. 

 

According to the presentation, the district is attempting to create and maintain a system that provides "opportunities for equitable academic and social and emotional learning."

 

Of the eight full-time equivalent employees added for this work, half have been funded with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) monies with a two-year commitment. The district is funding these efforts in an attempt to balance the responsibility it has to the town and its students. The ESSER funding has been going toward additional services in an effort to prevent the district from becoming dependent when the monies run out in the next couple years. 

 

The pandemic has made it difficult for children to learn how to read because of the hybrid and virtual model, they said, and interventionists have been added to focus on early literacy as well as math to help guide the elementary children.

 

"We want to make sure most of that [ESSER] funding has gone to support our students socially and emotionally in extra ways. So it's providing additional interventionists. It provided an additional school adjustment counselor. It provides a certified behavioral intervention which helps our students manage their emotions and emotional standards," Blake-Davis said.

 

"We have this challenge that we're trying to really provide the highest quality education that we can for our students, and also ... providing professional development and education for all our staff members."

 

She said the district is also cognizant of its responsibility to the towns and being fiscally responsible. 

 

Finance Committee member Kira Smith questioned how the district is handling the so-called "Great Resignation," a term for widespread departure of Americans from their careers, and the staffing shortage due to the pandemic. The district officials explained that although it is not ideal, they have been able to maintain the educational setting by having the academic support staff fill in. 

 

A board certified behavior analyst is currently contracted with the schools so the district is interested in adding one to the staff in the future to lower the cost but it is difficult to find someone willing to work in a public school because they make more in a private sector.

 

Blake-Davis said there has been a slight diminishment in enrollment but that the high school is at capacity for Grades 10-12 and has opened Grade 9 for school choice. 

 

School officials are not dipping into school-choice account of about $1.2 million to offset the budget, Boino said, "I do think we're going to need that in upcoming years ... I'm thinking that even if we're looking at 2024, we're going to need that revenue. So that was our hope, to have it for the future years."

 

The district is also budgeting to increase the assistant superintendent to full time; the position was a 0.6 FTE this past year. 

 

The district has also been "earmarking money" for repairs of the Nessacus Regional Middle School roof, which has lasted more than 20 years, in an effort to stabilize the budget in the future. 

 

Drosehn asked if they have run into any increases in expenses with the new Wahconah Regional High School. Peters, also co-chair of the School Building Committee, said there was an increase in the electrical cost but that was anticipated but added that the project had barely scratched its contingency fund.