BUCKLAND — Mohawk Trail Regional School District is set to finish the year with a $700,000 deficit.
Superintendent Michael Buoniconti said Monday he discovered the problem in January and froze the $19.9 million budget, only permitting expenditures for contracted salaries and other necessary items.
Buoniconti said the budget did not include a buffer for unanticipated expenses as it had in the previous 10 budget years, and was produced “in a manner that veered significantly from the approach used during the prior 10 budget cycles, which was intentionally conservative and allowed for unanticipated expenses.” Also, the budget did not include $564,956 worth of regular expenses.
Mohawk Trail does not plan to ask towns for more money, Buoniconti said, which he called the “good news.”
The district is looking for additional funding in its budget to offset the deficit, and hopes to lower the nearly $700,000 amount by the fiscal year’s end in June, Buoniconti said.
Buoniconti said the current budget was written by a previous business administrator, Stephen Nembirkow, who remained on the job for 10 months before becoming business manager for Greenfield Public Schools.
Several regular expenses were also not budgeted, Buoniconti said. They included: $386,126 for special education out-of-district tuition; $44,077 for buildings and grounds costs; $37,674 for the salary of one paraprofessional; $36,248 for central office support salaries; $34,764 for mid-year salary increases; plus $26,067 for phone charges.
Buoniconti said the issue was compounded when several unanticipated expenses arose in the current budget. These expenses included hiring long-term substitutes when teachers were absent due to illness or other reasons for a long period, costing $122,366. Also, three school buses required repairs costing $31,000. Other miscellaneous unanticipated expenses cost Mohawk $6,452.
Most new costs in in the current budget went to several new jobs. The school district added 11.07 positions in the fall, adding up to $459,984 or 2.1 percent of the budget.
At Mohawk Trail Regional School, a new full-time math teacher and full-time special education paraprofessional were hired. Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School hired a new full-time assistant principal, a part-time special education psychologist and two part-time special education paraprofessionals. Sanderson Elementary hired a part-time psychologist. Colrain Elementary brought on a part-time service learning coordinator and a part-time special education speech and language pathologist. And across the district, a full-time special education inclusion specialist and after-school director were hired, plus a part-time communications specialist, a nearly full-time board certified behavioral analyst, and part-time after-school staff.
Current business administrator Melissa Dunnet wrote 2020’s budget “from scratch” and in alignment with the regular, more “conservative” practices, Buoniconti said.