NORTHFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee will hold a public hearing via Google Meet Tuesday March 23 at 7 p.m., followed by a meeting for a vote on a proposed $14,851,290 FY22 operating and capital budget.
An amended FY22 budget is being brought back to the School Committee after it was not approved in February, and after a review of an Open Meeting Law complaint determined an error was made in a Feb. 4 Budget Subcommittee meeting and subsequent public hearing last month. As a result, it was recommended a new public hearing on the budget should be held.
Notice of the public hearing and meeting has been posted directly to the homepage of the district website, PVRSDk12.org, and a link to an agenda and public notice document are also available. The School Committee has made the public hearing accessible for the public to join via Google Meet through a link included in the posting on the website. A link to view the public hearing without joining the Google Meet call will be available at facebook.com/bnctelevision/.
In the event Bernardston Northfield Community Television is unable to livestream the meeting, it may be available on the Pioneer Valley Regional School Committee Meetings Facebook page. To submit questions ahead of time to be answered in the public hearing, residents may email Director of Finance Tanya Gaylord at gaylordt@pvrsdk12.org.
According to Gaylord’s presentations to the Budget Subcommittee meeting and full School Committee, the FY22 budget is a 4.82 percent increase from the previous year.
“Even though it’s a 4.82 increase over last year, when we’re looking at where we were, and should have been in FY21, we were actually still lower than we had anticipated,” Gaylord told the Budget Subcommittee March 9. “And over the three years from FY20 till now, our entire assessment increase to the towns has been .32 percent.”
The Bernardston assessment of $2,987,167 is a 6.15 percent increase from the current year. Leyden’s assessment is $801,218, a 1.29 percent decrease. Northfield’s assessment is $4,672,074, a 5.02 percent increase. Warwick’s assessment is $832,612, a 4.13 percent increase.
The FY22 capital assessment lists $2,696.90 for Bernardston, $648.27 for Leyden, $4,588.14 for Northfield and $743.69 for Warwick for a total of $8,677.
After the School Committee voted to postpone moving the sixth grade to PVRS until fall 2022, Gaylord said the administration team met and discussed what that would mean for the budget. Staff positions originally listed as being associated with the sixth-grade move that remain include a .5 art teacher, which Gaylord said was kept in the new budget to restore arts courses for seventh- and eighth-grade students, too.
In addition, a .5 FTE adjustment counselor was originally being presented as part of the sixth-grade move proposal. After meeting with the administration team, she said they are recommending this be restored to a full-time position who would travel between the district schools for open house-style events and to assist in the sixth-grade transition process.
During the full School Committee meeting March 11, Mike Townsley, who was recently voted vice-chair, made a motion to add world language for the district elementary schools to the budget. Gaylord noted this would need to be reviewed by members of the Curriculum and Personnel Subcommittee, who then met Wednesday, March 17, to hear a presentation from Pioneer Spanish teacher Kevin McKeown on what it may entail to institute a world language instructor for the elementary schools, including whether this would be a shared staff position between Bernardston and Northfield elementary schools.
Benefits of a foreign language programs for young students, McKeown said, include development of more careful listening skills, cognitive skills and cultural awareness. The program could also help diversify district staff by bringing in multi-lingual instructors, prepare students for French of Spanish courses at the high school level, and create a broader sense of community within and outside the school.
School Committee member Reina Dastous asked about the diversity of languages within the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, and Superintendent Jonathan Scagel estimated there were seven different languages spoken by various students in the district.
Due to restraints from requirements for posting public meeting information, Gaylord told School Committee members she would not be able to include a world language position as part of the budget for the public hearing Tuesday. However, she said she would assemble another budget sheet based on the effects of this change on the budget and assessments, which could be voted on as an amendment during the School Committee meeting immediately following Tuesday’s hearing.
Public Notice Fy22 Budget 2nd by Zachary DeLuca on Scribd
Pvrsd Mtg. Posting 03.23.21 – Public Hearing & Vote by Zachary DeLuca on Scribd
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.