School Committee debates raising sports fee

School Committee debates raising sports fee
FY12 budget proposal a 2.87 increase over last year

By Scott Feldman
Turley Publications Correspondent

SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley School Committee made a few minor alterations to Superintendent Gus Sayer’s budget proposal during its meeting on March 9.
The most notable changes that were made were to stop purchasing basic insurance coverage for athletics and to increase the amount of catastrophic injury insurance coverage the school system has from $500,000 to one million dollars. This change will save roughly $4,000, which will be added to the athletic budget.
School Committee Chairperson JoAnn Jordan felt this was a prudent decision because Massachusetts law requires everyone to have some form of health insurance anyway. In virtually every case, the medical expenses from injuries an athlete sustains are paid by his or her parent’s coverage.
Conversely, she wanted to make sure that the school had adequate coverage in the unlikely event of a student suffering a life-altering injury, such as dismemberment, during a sporting event. Jordan and the committee agreed that it was critical for the school be protected in the event of a disaster.
Both proposals were approved by a voted of 4-0-0 (Vice Chairperson Kathryn Mazur was absent).
The committee also discussed whether or not it should raise the student athletic participation fee from $75 to $100 in order to alleviate shortfalls in the athletic department.
Athletic Director Tad Desautels said that he was unable to increase his budget because of the economic times, but many teams need to purchase new safety equipment and uniforms.
Business Administrator Candice Walcazk estimated that increasing the participation fee would generate $13,000 of additional income for the department.
Everyone agreed that this would be a better way to generate money as opposed to cutting a sport.
“I think that [the] school committee is completely dedicated to the sports program and athletic department as a whole,” Jordan said. “We don’t want to eliminate any sport and we will be as creative as we can to prevent that.”

However, there was a debate between members of the School Committee on whether the fee increase was needed to avoid losing a sport.
Jordan noted that it had been 10 years since the participation fee has been increased and that South Hadley has a fairly low fee in comparison to surrounding schools and the extra revenue would be helpful.
On the other hand, Committee Member Edward Boisselle did not want to approve the fee increase unless it is absolutely necessary. Since the town and state budget picture is still murky, he felt it is would be prudent to wait and see if there were enough funds to keep all sports without raising fees.
Eventually, an agreement was reached to postpone the decision to increase the fees, but it is something that could be revisited shortly.
Other than those changes, the budget proposal was essentially the same as when Sayer first presented it to the committee last month. He is requesting a 2.87 percent funding increase from last year for a total budget of 19,332,641.
Boisselle reiterated a statement about the budget he made in February, saying that Sayer tried to keep a level-service budget, but extra expenses arose primarily due to the loss of nearly $600,000 in federal grant money.
Sayer did include some other potential budget cuts that could be included if circumstances are dire, such as releasing six paraprofessionals – that would bring the overall proposed increase down to 1.2 percent. He strongly recommended against these cuts because of the impact it will have on the school system.
“I also feel that as we make further cuts, they become more serious,” Sayer said. “These we can live with, but more cuts will have a negative impact on the quality of the schools.”
The School Committee is scheduled to have a special meeting to discuss any changes to the budget on March 16. It will vote whether or not to approve the proposal at its next regularly scheduled meeting on March 23.

FY 2012 school budget proposals presented

FY 2012 school budget proposals presented
Cuts to positions, services on the table

By Scott Feldman
Turley Publications Correspondent

SOUTH HADLEY – Budget proposals were the major highlight of the school committee meeting Wednesday where Superintendent Gus Sayer, High School Principal Dan Smith and Athletic Director Tad Desautels presented their budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2012.
Sayer’s proposed budget will require an additional $539,633 than the Fiscal Year 2011 budget, for a total of $19,332,641, which represents a 2.87 percent increase. Both Smith and Desautels came up with level service budgets, meaning their budgets were slightly reshuffled, but there were no changes to the total amount of money spent.
The cost increases in Sayer’s proposal are primarily due to the combination of more incoming students who require special education services and a loss of grant money that was provided over the past two years by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This created a situation where the school system essentially faced a $500,000 deficit before the budget process even started. Still, Sayer tried to keep the budget as close to level service funding as possible.
“To start half a million dollars in the hole makes it really hard for us to find enough areas to cut to get back to a zero percent increase,” Sayer said. “In order to do this, we looked very carefully at everything that we’re spending and where we could make cuts that we thought would not hurt us in dramatic ways.”
Sayer went on to highlight a few cost saving measures in his presentation. Such measures included the elimination of a High School Alternative Education teacher, the replacement of a retiring Planning Room teacher with a paraprofessional and the application of remaining money from the federal ‘Edujobs’ grant to this year’s budget.
Sayer also had a list of further cost cutting measures that could be implemented if the state and town budgets cuts are deeper than expected, which will lower the overall increase to $223,432 (1.2 percent).
He said he sincerely hopes to avoid additional cuts because many of the items he listed, such as the removal of a speech/language therapist, would have an adverse effect on the quality of education in South Hadley.
Over the past two years, the school system has been able to add many additional services despite the state’s overall budget cuts thanks to federal grant money provided by the ARRA, which Sayer said has been great for South Hadley.
“Despite having small increases in our local budget, the amount of money we’ve received from the ARRA grant and the Edujobs grant gave us enough funds to not only run our schools, but also to make improvements in school programs that were long needed,” said Sayer.
He then listed various additions that were made, such as adding a librarian to the Michael E. Smith Middle School and introducing a Chinese language program for sixth and seventh grade students. In order to keep these improvements once the grant money runs out, there had to be a slight increase in expenses.
The proposals made by Smith and Desautels were fairly straightforward as both presented a budget that had few significant alterations.
“Really nothing new was added into the budget. It’s pretty much the status quo in terms of line items,” Smith said to the School Committee.
Both Smith and Desautels had to make certain sacrifices to avoid incurring extra costs. Smith had to pare down the number of textbooks the High School will purchase while Desautels was unable to purchase any new helmets for the football team. Neither enjoyed making these choices, but they each felt they could make things work despite the cuts.
An additional school committee meeting to further discuss the FY 2012 budget was scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 10., after press time.

School Committee prioritizes improvement projects

School Committee prioritizes improvement projects
Replacement of tiles, bathroom partitions among tasks

By Scott Feldman
Turley Publications Correspondent

SOUTH HADLEY – Making sure that the facilities in a school district receive the improvements they need in a harsh economic climate is a serious challenge. That is why the South Hadley School Committee must constantly update the priorities on its capital improvements plan.
On Wednesday, Jan. 26, members of the School Committee discussed the priorities of its six-year capital improvements plan at its last meeting to figure out what projects need to be worked immediately and which ones can be postponed. The plan they came up with will be presented to Town Administrator Paul Beecher for review.
“The town is asking us to begin a six-year projection. We typically do it five years out, but this year the town administrator would like us to give him something the whole town can look at six years out,” said School Committee Chairperson JoAnn Jordan.
The School Committee decided that five projects should be worked on this year (fiscal year 2012).
They are, in order of priority: Replacing half the floor tiles in the Mosier School at a cost of $120,000, spending $25,000 to begin the installation new floor tiles at South Hadley High School, buying a new walk-in freezer and cooler ($40,000), replacing the bathroom partitions at the Mosier and Middle Schools ($23,000) and installing a “point of purchase” system in the cafeterias ($25,000).
The plan was created after a lengthy discussion amongst the committee members along with input from of a variety of sources within the school system, including Facilities Director Bruce Mailhott, Food Services Director Matthew Hoagland and High School Principal Dan Smith.
“We go by their recommendations, we ask questions and then we try to figure out what the schools need,” Jordan said.
Getting the floor tiles replaced is a high priority for the School Committee, especially since the Mosier School currently has asbestos tiles. While they don’t pose any safety concerns right now, the tiles could become hazardous if they continue to deteriorate.
Purchasing a new walk-in freezer/cooler is something that the School Committee has wanted to do for quite some time. The current freezer and cooler have been around for decades and is extremely energy inefficient so getting a newer model would eventually pay for itself in energy savings. It also reduces the possibility of a breakdown that would severely hinder food service operations.
Most members of the School Committee agreed that replacing the bathroom partitions isn’t a pressing safety issue, but since the work required is relatively inexpensive and the partitions are so ugly, it was decided that this project should be done sooner rather than later.
The final improvement slated for this year is installing a “point of purchase” system in the school cafeterias that provides many benefits to the district’s food service. It cam tracks students’ spending habits so administrators and parents can find out what children are eating. It allows parents to buy meals for their children in advance using online technology, it also enables children receiving reduced cost or free meals a way to do so anonymously and will give cafeteria workers a better tool to track a student’s allergies.
There are many other projects that the School Committee plans to tackle over the next few years, including major ones such as replacing the lockers in the High School, installing a new telephone system for the entire school district and repairing the High School’s gymnasium floor.
This document is fluid and could be altered if new priorities pop up or the economic outlook changes. It will be reviewed on a yearly basis or as the committee deems necessary.
“This is for budgeting and planning purposes, so they [town officials] can look at the town as whole and see what the towns needs in the long term,” Jordan said.