ERVING — Annual Town Meeting voters approved an amendment Wednesday night to raise the proposed Erving Elementary School budget back to the $3.87 million amount proposed in January, prompting the Selectboard to reconsider funding options.

Warrant Article 7, which would have appropriated $3.54 million to operate Erving Elementary in fiscal year 2024, was amended after about an hour of discussion at Wednesday’s three-hour Town Meeting. The amendment, proposed by lead negotiator and sixth grade teacher Mark Burnett, reversed the roughly $300,000 cut imposed by the Selectboard that decreased the school’s budget from $3.87 million.

“Our annual budget is the financial expression of the educational programs of our Erving Elementary School and it reflects the goals we have for the staff — and I feel, the town — to meet the needs of our students,” Superintendent Jennifer Culkeen said. “The original budget that the administration created, presented and shared is the budget that we feel is needed to provide excellent education for all students at Erving Elementary School, which is our primary goal and has been since I’ve been here, and even prior to that.”

“I would like to add that in my many years of coming to these Town Meetings, often, we’re asked, ‘What do you need?’ … Now, we’re asking for some help,” Burnett added.

Those who spoke against the amendment to Article 7, including Police Chief Robert Holst, argued that a school budget increase would likely force further budget cuts to other town departments.

“If we pass this amendment, other departments in this town are going to have to cut, possibly,” he argued. “Other departments that have already made a sacrifice — my department being one of them. To the school’s point, they talk about kids being out of control. This world is out of control. Police officers deal with it constantly. We have a staff of six officers for 1,800 people.”

The amendment to increase the school budget to $3.87 million was approved in a ballot vote, 70-59.

Later in the meeting, with raising the tax rate an option to accommodate the increase, the town voted to fund a series of capital projects, outlined in Article 14, entirely from free cash, rather than raise $400,000 for the projects from taxation. This allows room for the town to fund the school through taxation without surpassing the levy limit, should it choose to do so, and maintain a balanced budget.

With Erving only having $372,551 in free cash available, Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith also amended Article 20 to reduce a proposed transfer of $128,000 from free cash to the General Stabilization Account to $100,000. Adding $28,000 brings the free cash amount to the $400,000 amount needed to pay for the Article 14 amendment.

Smith, who proposed the amendment to fund the capital projects entirely through free cash in response to the Article 7 school budget amendment, framed the idea as a short-term solution that buys Erving time to find a longer-term fix. Had the town emerged from Wednesday meeting without a balanced budget, it would have had until June 30 to balance the budget and submit it to the state by law. With the budget balanced, Erving has up until fiscal year 2025 to resolve budgeting issues and avoid being “in the same boat” next year, Smith explained.

Prior to Article 14, regarding the capital projects, being amended, Burnett proposed an amendment to the article imploring the town to transfer $400,000 from its $10.1 million General Stabilization Account to fund those projects rather than raise $400,000 from taxation, allowing the town to fund the school through taxation without surpassing the levy limit in a way similar to Smith’s proposition.

Burnett’s proposed amendment was voted down, 39-47. Opponents argued that draining from stabilization funding would impede the town’s ability to fund budgets across departments in coming years.

“I want to reiterate that this is a placeholder in our budget, so if we do take out of stabilization, moving forward, we wouldn’t be able to have that capacity in the future,” said Jennifer Eichorn, Erving’s treasurer and School Committee chair.

“We don’t have enough money in this year’s budget to fund everything people asked for, so we had to cut things. If we replace it, that’s great, but where are we going to get the money for next year? Stabilization again?” Finance Committee member Daniel Hammock said.

Town officials will now work to find a long-term solution that minimizes deficit before FY25, Smith said. Should the Selectboard figure out a solution and revise this year’s budget, the budget would come before a Special Town Meeting for approval.

A budget override that would permanently increase taxes for Erving residents remains an option as well. Proposition 2½ overrides allow a community to tax residents and businesses above the 2.5% yearly levy increase.

Other articles

All items on the 27-article warrant were approved, save for Articles 24 and 26, which were passed over. These pertained to a personnel bylaw, a meeting minutes bylaw, and a winter and snow emergency parking ban.

Other articles that were approved involved appropriating $1.48 million in secondary education funding, allocating $528,017 for Franklin County Technical School-related expenses, appropriating $75,000 for wastewater capital projects and establishing an opioid settlement stabilization fund.

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

]]>