By Allison McDonald

A report on the Regional School Committee meeting on Tuesday, January 13.

Middle School Roof Replacement

After some discussion, the Regional School Committee (RSC) declined to proceed with a proposal, presented by district finance director Shannon Bernacchia, to expand the roof replacement project at ARMS to include the auditorium roof, and to fund that portion of the project by seeking appropriations of free cash from the towns. 

The District is working to replace the roof at the regional middle school this summer, using grant funding through the MA School Building Authority (MSBA). However, that funding does not cover the portion of the roof over the auditorium because it must be several years older to qualify for the MSBA grant. The RSC therefore had decided to proceed with a project that excludes that portion of the roof.

Bernacchia’s proposal to expand the project using one-time appropriations of free cash from the regional towns suggested this would be a cost-efficient approach to replacing the auditorium roof compared to pursuing a stand-alone project at a future, unspecified time.  

The District may proceed with a capital project such as the proposed auditorium roof replacement so long as sufficient funds are appropriated from any source. One-time gifts, such as funds from a town’s free cash, may be made outside of the annual budget process and as such do not need to use the assessment formula in the regional agreement nor do all member towns need to contribute funds.  

Amherst representative Bridget Hynes said that while she agreed it would be less expensive to replace the auditorium roof at the same time as the rest of the building roof, she didn’t support the proposal because she didn’t believe it would help reduce operating costs.

District facilities director Michael Gallo O’Connell countered that replacing that roof would help reduce costs. According to O’Connell, they’d still have “major leaking going on in the auditorium section,” and that “we’re going to have to keep sinking money into it.”

Shutesbury representative Anna Heard agreed, saying “it’s probably advisable to get it done now so that we can save ourselves a little bit of money in extra repair costs over the next couple of years, or for 10 years or 20 years, because it takes that long to get more funding to fix the roof.” Heard indicated that she was willing to make the request to the Shutesbury finance committee, saying that “the idea that we’re going to continue to have a leaky, mold-inducing roof for the unknown future is very sad for me.”

Leverett representative Tim Shores objected to the late timing of this proposal, indicating that the idea to leverage free cash to fund the auditorium roof had been floated by individuals from the Amherst Town Council in October, but nothing has been discussed since then. “It’s just too late. We need to plan. We can’t just lob these requests at towns, because there’s a political process.”

Amherst representative Sarah Marshall also objected to the timing. “Amherst has lobbed this issue onto our laps in a way that is just disrupting our capital planning.” Marshall continued “just because an offer is on the table…it’s not part of our capital planning, and I don’t know that that’s what I would ask for if I had the opportunity to ask them for another million dollars.”

The committee declined to vote on the proposal and concluded the discussion with no action plan.

FY27 Budget

The committee next discussed follow-ups from the January 10 meeting with the four member towns about the FY27 budget development.

At that meeting, the district presented an initial draft of the FY27 operating budget that projected a 9.5% increase in spending to provide level services next year and a nearly 12% increase in total assessments to the four member towns. 

Guidance provided at the January 10 meeting by the member towns was far lower than what was projected in the initial draft budget. Amherst indicated it would fund up to a 3.5% increase in its assessment, about $1.6 million less than what the district projected. Pelham indicated it could fund up to a 2.5% increase in its assessment, about $180K less than what the district projected in its draft budget. 

The budget presentation included estimated deficits based on different assessment amounts. In order to align with the guidance from Amherst, the RSC would need to make more than $2 million in reductions. Bernacchia indicated that this would be roughly equivalent to eliminating more than 29 staff.

Although the scenarios presented did not include one with a 2.5% increase for Pelham, Bernacchia noted that, using the regional agreement method for calculating assessments, it would mean a reduction in assessment amounts vs. FY26 for Amherst, Leverett, and Shutesbury. Amherst representative Deb Leonard said that she estimated the budget deficit could be more than $3 million in that scenario.

The next meeting of the Regional SC is Tuesday, January 27. The RSC Fiscal Sustainability Subcommittee meets virtually with representatives from member towns on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30PM. Agendas and links to join meetings online are published on the school committee website.

Allison McDonald was a member of the Amherst and Regional school committees 2018-2023 and served as chair of the Regional SC for two years in 2020-2021.