HATFIELD — Town officials are recommending the use of free cash to cover a significant and unanticipated increase associated with the cost of tuition and transportation for Hatfield students attending Smith Vocational and Agricultural School in Northampton, a move they stresses is not a long-term solution.

With annual Town Meeting set for May 14, the Finance Committee Tuesday voted unanimously to use $137,281 in free cash to pay for the bulk of the $148,261, or nearly 26% increase, in the costs of sending students to the vocational school. Those expenses are rising from $573,796 to $722,257, well above the $584,976 approved earlier by the Finance Committee.

“That’s quite a hike,” said Finance Committee Chairman Darryl Williams.

But Williams said the use of most of the $151,115 in free cash is not a long-term solution to paying these expenses.

The use of free cash was also supported by Select Board Chairwoman Diana Szynal, who said she would prefer not to use this tactic, but that it is better than making reductions to other municipal departments. “I do not want to ask our budgets to cut 2%,” Szynal said.

School Committee Chairwoman Christy Boudreau said the expenses for the vocational school are associated with about 31 Hatfield students who will be enrolled there in the fall, and a $4,400 increase per student. That compares to a $450 per student increase, based on expenses in the Hatfield public schools budget.

“While that increase request is quite significant, the public schools of Hatfield are looking for a much more moderate increase,” Boudreau said

The Hatfield schools budget is rising from $5.97 million to $6.12 million, a $149,317, or 2.5%, increase, that doesn’t maintain all existing programs and staffing.

Boudreau said the school committee cut more than anticipated cost increases, and staffing cuts are part of the plan.

“We aren’t asking for level services,” she said.

Hatfield schools continue to rely on revenue from school-choice students, with 26% of the enrollment from non-resident students, but whether that is a long-term plan to keep the schools solvent is uncertain.

Finance Committee member Sean Barry said the problem is all local school districts are competing for a smaller pool of students.

“We would be foolish to think we would be able to go on forever attracting more and more and more school choice students,” Barry said.

Last month, in a preliminary discussion about its budget, trustees for Smith Vocational were presented a $14 million fiscal year 2025 budget that is about $520,000, or 3.86%, over this year’s $13.5 million budget.

As part of that, the non-resident tuition rate would go up to $20,847, a 3.84% increase, which remains less than the per student contribution for Northampton, which is at $26,012, or a 4.21% increase. Transportation costs are covered by other communities for their students.

After the Hatfield Finance Committee made its decision, Williams said a spending plan is ready for action at Town Meeting.

“We have a budget until the next crisis comes,” Williams said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.