ERVING — Erving School Union 28 presented a proposed $3.8 million budget for fiscal year 2024 to the town’s Selectboard and Finance Committee for review during Monday’s joint meeting.

The five-member School Committee had voted unanimously on the third of three draft budget scenarios for FY24 during their meeting last week. Members said this scenario was the only one that does not include staff cuts. The committee removed from the proposed budget $181,400 for special education transportation, as there is hope Erving Elementary School can obtain a van with some grants and fundraising.

“Obviously we want the best school possible, but we are only handed X amount of dollars,” School Committee member Erik Semb said at last week’s meeting.

Similarly, School Committee Chair Jennifer Eichorn said last week that her board has to “make do with what we have” and it is “not a fun task” deciding which budget line items don’t get the funding they deserve.

The most significant commentary made by the Selectboard upon review of the budget on Monday regarded the omission of special education transportation as a line item. Regardless of whether the district enters the default $181,400 bus company contract, gets grant funding for a van service or figures out some other alternative, spending in some capacity will have to be accounted for, Selectboard members stressed.

“I know at the last School Committee meeting, the discussion was to remove it so we could see what it looked like without it in there,” commented Selectboard member Scott Bastarache, “but from now until the official time of drafting the [Annual Town Meeting warrant] … if we have to hire transportation drivers, that’s where that line item would go.”

“At the end of the day … it’s in the Erving Elementary costs … and if we don’t have it in here, then it won’t be funded, so it needs to be in there,” Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith said, adding that the town must anticipate the “worst-case” scenario in terms of a funding amount “unless we learn something different.”

While district representatives agreed to bring the budget back to the School Committee to add the special education transportation line item, Union 28 Superintendent Jennifer Culkeen said she is unsure whether the district will affirm a favorable option from “a running working list” of transportation alternatives in the remaining month before the Annual Town Meeting warrant is set.

“I think the number I’d be positive about is what it’s costing us to contract with a bus company,” Culkeen said, referring to the $181,400 that had been budgeted for traditional bus services.

Without the special education transportation line item included, the proposed $3.8 million budget that the Selectboard and Finance Committee discussed on Monday represented an increase of $374,555, or 9.8%, over the current year’s figures.

The proposed administration budget is $130,757, down 4.1% from the current year. There are proposed decreases in most of the administration’s budget line items.

The proposed principal’s salary is up 3%, from $95,160 to $98,015. One of the largest increases is that of $35,392 for therapeutic services like speech, physical and occupational therapies. This would be a 33.3% increase.

Regular education classroom teachers’ salaries would increase from $944,237 to $992,713 and special education salaries would go up 29% — from $122,030 to $157,422.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120. Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.

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