WESTHAMPTON — The Hampshire Regional School District’s newly approved $18.2 million budget for next fiscal year presents a 4.5% increase in spending from the current year — but it carries with it the elimination of two full- and one part-time positions, which has raised concern from the district’s union.

The Hampshire Regional Education Association (HREA) is currently in talks with district administration and Superintendent Vito Perrone about potentially restoring these positions, which HREA co-Vice President Michael Braidman said will likely be taken from Hampshire Regional’s library, arts and business programs.

According to the district’s budget, these staffing cuts are anticipated to save almost $205,0000 in spending.

“We’re really concerned about the cuts,” Braidman said, noting that because Hampshire Regional High School is smaller in population than many other schools, these programs are already small.

Braidman and other HREA members worry that these staffing cuts could mean less classes in these areas for students to take, or increased class sizes.

Decisions are still being made around these cuts. One possibility is that positions may be “absorbed” by the district by not rehiring for certain posts after a retirement.

However, while Braidman said that these cuts are “an area of great concern,” he also noted that the HREA thinks “this budget could be worse than it is.”

Braidman said that he and his colleagues have “really enjoyed” working with Perrone this budget season, and believe he is working to step in and correct previous “mismanagement” in the district.

While staffing cuts in the district are far less dramatic than in some surrounding towns, Perrone said that, like other districts in the region, Hampshire Regional is grappling with a lot of uncertainty — as well as dissatisfaction with the state’s Chapter 70 funding formula.

“Everybody’s pretty uncertain on what’s going to happen with a lot of our grant funding,” Perrone said. “We’re trying to be conservative with the revenues that we apply.”

Amid federal funding cuts and a recent executive order eyeing the shuttering of the U.S. Department of Education, Hampshire Regional and other districts are unsure of what such changes will mean for their own funding. Perrone said that the lack of clarity currently surrounding potential federal aid has prevented the district from being “as confident in revenues as we could have been,” although there were “not a lot of surprises” when it came to expenditures.

In regards to state aid, the formula for Chapter 70 funding — the commonwealth’s primary program of state aid to public elementary and secondary schools — continues to be a point of discontent for Hampshire Regional and other area school districts.

In a regional school district, Perrone said “there’s just such different communities and such different realities they face,” but currently, he worries that “the formula doesn’t necessarily account for all of those different realities.”

For fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1, the district is slated to receive about $3.5 million in Chapter 70 aid — a 2.58% increase from fiscal year 2025. With that small increase and rising costs, Perrone said “it’s tough to maintain services.”

Now, Perrone said that he and others in the district are focusing efforts toward advocacy. In advocating for new approaches to Chapter 70 aid, Perrone said he and other education professionals are trying to make clear the challenges that their districts face, which they feel go unaddressed by current funding formulas.

At the same time, Perrone said there are opportunities for advocacy at the federal level as well, and encouraged others to “let decision makers know that the uncertainty is hurtful.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.