ERVING — With the Finance Committee and Selectboard unable to find an alternate route to a balanced budget, Erving Elementary School is facing staffing cuts as its proposed $3.5 million budget heads to the Annual Town Meeting floor.

Following a March 21 public hearing, the School Committee voted to cut $200,000 from staff salaries and $30,000 in special education transportation funding, a decision prompted by the Selectboard’s request to trim $332,000 from the fiscal year 2024 budget. The School Committee intends to use $65,000 in grants, as well as the potential for cheaper transportation, to make up the difference.

“If we don’t cut it there, offer suggestions of where to cut it from,” Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith implored attendees of Monday’s Selectboard meeting, during which the Annual Town Meeting warrant was finalized. “Every department had to cut.”

“We did what we felt was reasonable and in the best interest of the students and staff at Erving Elementary,” School Committee Chair Jennifer Eichorn wrote in an email relative to the $200,000 reduction to the staff salary budget. “These decisions are extremely tough to make.”

Mark Burnett, lead negotiator and sixth grade teacher, said at Monday’s Selectboard meeting that the school budget has been slashed “to the point where the school cannot correctly run its department.”

“The children of this town are the ones paying the price,” Burnett said.

The state requires submittal of a balanced budget, or a budget that restricts municipalities to spending an amount in excess of its revenue. However, Selectboard member Scott Bastarache said this is the first time, in his 16 years in the position, that the budgeting process has been “overwhelmingly problematic.” He noted there has historically been some “give and take” as figures are ironed out, and the town has had enough levy capacity to be more amenable to the school’s budget requests.

“We’ve outgrown that. When you can only raise and appropriate an increase of 2.5% on your tax base every year but you have [school budget request increases] that are coming in at 4, 5, 6, 7% — this year it’s 16% — it’s more than what you can raise,” Bastarache said. Town Administrator Bryan Smith noted that this 16% increase from FY23’s budget request accounts for a difference of roughly $560,000.

Burnett said the “unprecedented budget increase” occurred due “primarily to some students’ needs that were more than Erving Elementary could accommodate.”

“They are now receiving services out of district that they need and lawfully deserve,” Burnett continued. “Unfortunately, that cost is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Staffing impact

Administrators would not publicly announce specific staffing cuts that would result from the $200,000 difference to the staff salaries line, and Eichorn said in her email that the superintendent and principal are still “working on those cuts.” Burnett, however, said that some staff members had been notified of their termination prior to last Wednesday’s School Committee meeting.

At Monday’s Selectboard meeting, Burnett outlined the cuts as including layoffs of two preschool teachers, two math interventionists and two education specialists. Additionally, there is a 20% reduction for the technology director’s budget and “significant cuts to assistive technology and student resources.”

Samantha Butynski, who spent eight years as a paraprofessional at the school before transitioning to a teaching role two years ago, said she was laid off with little warning Wednesday afternoon. She noted that her termination coincided with that of preschool teacher Kathryn Buell, the school’s only other preschool teacher.

“It was kind of shocking to see that the two preschool teachers were fully cut from the building,” she said.

Despite both preschool teachers being laid off, Principal Lisa Candito said Monday that the school doesn’t have “any intention” to discontinue preschooling next year. Butynski predicts another certified staff member will likely step in and teach preschool.

“I feel for the early education department where it was two classes of 3- or 4-year-olds and now it could be only one,” Butynski added.

Considering the impact staffing shortages could have, Butynski said she wishes the Selectboard and School Committee “looked a little more at the school or the needs of the school before making a drastic cut like this.”

“We are overworked, short staffed, and quite honestly, we are burnt out,” special education paraprofessional Kerri Lapointe told the School Committee last week. “We work endless hours, attend numerous trainings and still can’t manage to be our most successful selves because we don’t have any help or any room to budge. Cutting a teacher will increase the case load of another teacher, staff member or paraprofessional.”

Aside from the staffing cuts, Burnett mentioned that students’ needs have increased, with the COVID-19 pandemic having created “levels of trauma this school has never seen before.”

“The extreme losses in staff plus the unprecedented trauma and lack of basic communication skills students are exhibiting equal one thing: a crisis,” he continued.

Alternative solutions

Toward the end of his statement to the Selectboard Monday evening, Burnett argued that “there are ways to make this happen and give the school the funding it needs to teach our children.” One path to this end, he said, would be a budget override that would permanently increase taxes for Erving residents. Proposition 2½ overrides, which allow a community to tax residents and businesses above the 2.5% yearly levy increase, must be approved by residents.

“At Town Meeting, there is going to be an amendment to fully fund the school, so we’re going to have to figure it out then, or maybe ahead of time and plan for that override,” Burnett told the Selectboard.

Burnett, who also serves on the Board of Assessors, projected that to account for the $332,000 difference, the override would mean a tax rate increase of 22 cents per $1,000 valuation, a bump he said “townspeople would happily cover.” The Selectboard expressed a desire to pursue data and finite numbers regarding a potential override.

Annual Town Meeting is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 10, at Erving Elementary School.

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.

]]>