PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Following a workshop and internal review of the Pittsfield Public School's proposed fiscal 2023 budget, the administration made a few changes to the proposed spending.

Two positions were removed from the $72.3 million budget, a part-time assistant athletic director and full-time human resources assistant, to make room for two full-time librarians located at Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School.

Previously, one full-time high school librarian had been funded through federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds but Superintendent Joseph Curtis said the district would like to make a local commitment to having a librarian accessible for both schools.

He added that there have been discussions about re-building the library program for all schools and this is certainly a start.

"Our budget proposals, as you know, are centered around long-term commitments," Curtis said to the School Committee on Wednesday.

"Which you can see that originally in our budget proposal we had a 0.5 assistant athletic director and a 1.0 HR assistant, and in consideration after the budget workshop and our own review of the budget proposals, along with some of your feedback, we've decided to propose a more sustainable goal that we have is having a full-time librarian available at both high schools, and also in reviewing anticipated increases in 7D transportation costs."

The change was well received by the committee and a larger conversation started about the difficulty in finding school librarians because the qualifications are more demanding than that of a non-school librarian.

"I just wanted to say that I really, really value the shift in making librarians full time at our two high schools," Mayor Linda Tyer said.

Committee member Vicky Smith said that with her understanding, there are two elementary schools with librarians because it was identified as a priority in their school improvement plans.

"Kind of, I think some of that is also a holdover from how we have done things for many years, so there have been changes along the way that may have shifted from librarians," Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kristen Behnke said.

"Mr. Curtis could probably speak to this a little more eloquently, having been an elementary school principal, but it's very difficult to find the librarian, the certification involved it's actually more difficult to become a school librarian than it is to just become a librarian to work in a library in city, town or other places."

Curtis explained that when he was principal at Morningside Community School, the librarian retired and no applicants applied for the post. Because of this, the school shifted to offering two physical education classes a week.

He said that situation has evolved at several elementary schools over the years.

"It wasn't a focus to eliminate library services, it just happened through a number of years," Curtis explained.

"But as we've been discussing, as of recently our growing concern that our students don't have ready access to library books for pleasure and so we need to come up with some system to make those accessible and consistently in all buildings."

Chair William Cameron suggested a program similar to Reading is Fundamental, a nonprofit children's literacy organization, and Curtis said the district has talked about such actions if they cannot find licensed librarians.

"We talked about it more recently because we do have federal grant funds available and it would certainly be an appropriate use, it's also not a very high cost so we talked about engaging community partners," he added.

"I mean, we used to provide a book, at that time Morningside had 550 students, we provided them with eight to nine free books a year and I'm going to say that it was $3,000 or $4,000, $5,000 total, so the cost is minimal and obviously the kids truly enjoyed it, and it was theirs to keep. Where when we had library services, we often had trouble getting the books back for a whole number of reasons and we didn't want to engage in fines and penalizing children for circumstances that were not theirs to own, so we did go to that model and it was very successful.

"We do believe it would be doable in our school system as well because we have incredible community partners that are really looking, we just had a meeting with the Berkshire United Way, just looking for ways to support our children."

Committee member Alison McGee pointed to the impact that a librarian can have on students in expanding their reading choices.

"I'm sure that someone who is a librarian by trade could speak to this better than I can, but I think it's important to look at what a librarian brings is more than just the checking out of books," She said.

"I think access to books is a huge piece of it, but I also think it's library sciences for a reason because they're trained in broadening a student's exposure to different types of literature than they might pick out if they are just selecting it on their own and I think there is an art to those recommendations."

McGee also pointed out that society's current literary landscape is changing because there are more digital pieces and said it may be in the district's interest to have a media specialist that contributes to research strategies.

Curtis added that under the former model, where a librarian was at each school, students were only able to spend about 45 minutes a week with them, which did not allow for an in-depth dive into library sciences.

He said the district would love the school library to be a true partner of the classroom teacher and under the current structure, it cannot be.

The Pittsfield schools' proposed FY23 budget responds to enrollment changes by reducing staff responsibility through one-year appointments, retirements, and attrition.

It will see a net reduction of $550,000 by doing away with multiple elementary teachers but will add an additional pre-kindergarten classroom for 3-year-olds and an English learner teacher at Egremont Elementary School.

The additional pre-kindergarten classroom will cost $110,000 for a teacher and two paraprofessionals and the English learner teacher will cost $60,000. A substantially separate teacher will also be added to Crosby Elementary School for $60,000.

Stearns Elementary School will see a new 4th grade and 5th-grade inclusion special education teacher totaling $120,000 and the district will have a chief diversity officer for a net change of $200,000.

To grow Taconic's Career Technical Education program, two teachers will be reduced and a CTE business teacher and CTE ISSN program teacher will be added, both costing $65,000.

The budget's contractual obligation increase of $4.7 million is significantly higher than the FY22 increase of $1.6 million and accounts for most of the overall budget increase from the previous year.

Recently Local 1315, Pittsfield Federation of School Employees, which includes bus drivers and attendants, cafeteria workers, custodians, paraprofessionals, and educational secretaries, has been advocating for higher wages in the current contract negotiation, arguing that the current wage is not livable.

Both the union and the School Committee have requested state mediation to break the deadlock; the last three-year contract expired in August 2021. 

The committee on Wednesday approved a contract with Dupere Law Offices to provide general counsel and labor relations counsel representation with a retainer of $4,000 per month effective from July 2022 to June 2023.

In his comments on the budget, student representative William Garrity from Taconic High School addressed the contract negotiations.

"Currently the district and the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees are in a conflict. This conflict, as with all union conflicts, puts students into the crossfire. If the employees under the Federation are not happy, then students will feel it. If there is a shortage of paras, bus drivers, secretaries, cafeteria workers, and custodians due to low wages (which is what we face currently) or even a mass exodus of our current staff, students will be the ones who feel the brunt of it," he said.

"And it seems the conflicts with the Federation have been going on for much longer. From a scan of the Department of Labor Relations website, it seems as though there have been many complaints filed against the district from Federation members. And from the public comment at these past meetings, it seems as though a lot of members don't feel respected by the district. For me, this is disappointing to hear, though I do understand that I don't have both sides of the story. If these staff members don't feel they are getting the respect they deserve, then the school community falls apart, and students suffer. If this conflict goes on for longer, I am afraid for what the future will look like for the Pittsfield Public Schools; including how students progress academically, how residents and staff perceive the school system, and how many students school choice out of Pittsfield."

Garrity proposed that the district and the unions work together to find a pay solution that everyone can agree with, emphasizing the impact that dissatisfied staff can have on the students.

"In summary, the most important thing for the school district and school committee to keep in mind is keeping school communities intact throughout the district," he said.

McGee and Cameron addressed Garrity's frustrations with the situation and the restraint of bargaining agreements happening in executive sessions and not being able to be discussed publicly.

Cameron made a couple of observations about the origins of collective bargaining, one being from an essay by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

He said that Lenin in an essay quoted another Russian Marxist thinker in saying that "the worst it is, the better it is," meaning that the worst things get, the more opportunity there is to get what a group is trying to accomplish.

"It's very difficult for us to talk about what we've discussed in private and I've learned through the process the importance of having that time, but I think it does make it very difficult and I think you're absolutely right and I agree that you know, as Dr. Cameron echoed, we have a problem we need to find a solution," McGee said to Garrity.

"I just want to be able to say to you, I would love to be able to say it to the many people who have come and spoken to us that we are not able to say everything that we wish we could say because of the respect of that process that Dr. Cameron's describing and it's a complicated process, because you're taking two viewpoints and trying to meld them together."

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