BELCHERTOWN — The town faces a potential budget deficit for the next fiscal year, prompting talk about cuts to the schools that would include a half dozen teaching positions, junior varsity sports and the band.
The Finance Committee on Thursday also told the Select Board to cut $300,000 from general expenses.
Without those reductions in the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, officials said the town may have to seek an override of Proposition 2½ totaling up to $680,000.
School Superintendent Karol Coffin, with the support of the School Committee, has said the educational needs of the district require increasing the budget to pay for an additional nurse, a school adjustment counselor and several paraprofessionals as well as creating a program for teaching science, technology, engineering and math, commonly referred to as STEM subjects.
She has said at recent meetings that if the town cannot come up with the additional money for those needs she would have to look at cutting other areas, possibly including the band, junior varsity sports and half a dozen teaching positions.
“That’s what started the brush fire,” said Select Board Chairman Ronald Aponte, referring to a public outcry at two meetings in recent weeks where parents advocated for additional money for schools even if it means raising taxes by asking voters to approve a Proposition 2½ override.
Aponte spoke Thursday after a joint meeting of the Finance Committee, Select Board and the School Committee.
The numbers are not final, as the town is still awaiting confirmation of how much state aid it will receive. As it now stands, the school budget is set to go from a little more than $27.1 million this year to about $27.7 million next year, according to Finance Committee Chairwoman Lynne Raymer. The budget for the rest of the town is expected to go from $11.6 million to $11.9 million.
Because of built-in cost increases, that means the town, excluding the schools, would have to cut about $300,000 from what would be a level-services budget.
“It’s not going to be easy and we’re not going to like it but we’ll do it,” said Aponte.
The School Committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Swift River Elementary School library to discuss what cuts it would make to meet a budget of $27.7 million. Coffin has said her department would require $28.4 million in order to meet all its needs.
Aponte said he consulted with the town’s lawyers who suggested that the school prepare two warrant articles for the annual Town Meeting on May 9 — one for the amount it knows it will get from the Finance Committee and another for the additional money it would take to pay for the needs Coffin has outlined without cutting existing programs or faculty.
“That would be the Proposition 2½ override article,” said Aponte. He estimated the amount at $680,000.
School Committee member Michael Knapp said at Thursday’s meeting that local officials should think seriously about whether it is time to put a Proposition 2½ override question to the voters. “It’s time to talk about what this town needs to function,” he said.
Others said the idea is worth looking into but they would like to see more concrete numbers about how the money would be spent before they would support an override question.
Select Board member Nicholas O’Connor said, “I’m two years away from election, I’m not opposed to a 2½ override.”
Aponte said he personally would not support an override, but as a Select Board member he would not try to keep it from going to the voters.
Raymer said the Finance Committee will meet at 7 p.m. next Thursday in Town Hall, when the Select Board and the School Committee would come back with their budgets for next year based on the revenue the town currently expects.
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com.