An overview of what was decided.
Tom Wyatt
http://www.recorder.com/Pioneer-School-Committee-decides-to-borrow-money-for-budget-18303978
Pioneer board votes to borrow money, spend at deficit
NORTHFIELD — Insisting there is nothing left to cut from the school budget,
the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee voted on Tuesday to borrow
money and spend at a deficit through the coming year while it restructures
its spending to be sustainable in the long term.
“We’re destroying ourselves. We’re not going to get students coming in here
if we make more cuts,” said School Committee member Sharon Fontaine. “I
think it’s ridiculous to think we can cut more money out of this budget. I
don’t want to get into debt either, but it’s feeling like that’s the only
lifeline we’ve got.”
The decision to spend at a deficit and borrow money rather than make
further cuts comes after several major cuts were announced at the previous
meeting on June 12. These most notable cuts included several teacher
layoffs and reductions to elementary school special classes.
The committee debated asking the towns for more money, but decided against
doing so after Leyden Selectman Jeff Neipp said it would be “ludicrous” to
ask the district’s four member towns to hold special town meetings for
appropriating the money in time for the start of the school year in
September.
Similarly, closing either Leyden’s Pearl Rhodes Elementary School or
Warwick Community School has been ruled out, as doing so would require a
change to the district agreement which would have to be approved by at
least three of the four towns in a special town meetings.
“We can’t keep spending at this level. We know that,” said School Committee
member Sue O’Reilly-McRae. “So we make a long-term investment to buy this
time to keep us going.
“We don’t make draconian cuts to our district that continue to spiral us
down so that we have less enrollment and less engagement and less faith in
us as a district,” she said. “That gives us the year. … It gives us time
for everyone to come to terms with, do we need to close a school? How many
administrators can we support? Do we have to restructure in a dramatic way?”
By MAX MARCUS
Recorder Staff
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
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On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 11:34 PM, Erika Nygard <eanygard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Important meeting...stay informed! PVRS Budget Meeting June 19th.
https://www.facebook.com/bnctelevision/videos/1359722947505767/
Erika
🌊
