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Williamstown Elementary Committee Sends Budget to Town
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:56AM / Monday, March 16, 2015
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Elementary School is not facing the draconian cuts other districts confront heading into fiscal 2016, but it is not immune to the financial realities either.
 
At Wednesday's School Committee meeting, it was announced that the school is cutting its world language program for FY16.
 
For several years, Xiahong Wan has introduced Mandarin to primary students at the elementary school, but her position did not make the cut in the budget that was presented at Wednesday's public hearing.
 
"We feel we still can have an enrichment program and work it into social studies," interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy told the School Committtee. "But it comes under the category of things you'd really like to have but have to make tough choices if you're going to meet the bottom line."
 
The $6.4 million budget laid out on Wednesday is up by 2.39 percent from FY15. That allows Williamstown Elementary to live within the 2.5 percent bump offered by the town while maintaining some money in the school's "revolver" accounts, income that can be spent at the discretion of the School Committee outside of the assessment to the town.
 
In dollar terms, the school will ask voters at Town Meeting to approve $5.7 million in appropriations from property taxes, a hike of about $144,000 — the same 2.5 percent increase that other town departments are seeing.
 
Much of that increase, nearly $99,000, is going toward a 15 percent hike in health insurance cost for active employees.
 
But there are other cost savings anticipated. The school expects to have lower special education expenses because of a drop in out-of-district placements, it is saving some money on SPED transportation because of a previously negotiated van sharing agreement with Mount Greylock Regional School, it expects to save about $13,000 on its natural gas bill because of a conservation project the School Committee approved last year, and then there is world language program.
 
That represents a savings of about $16,000 from the budget, but it is a loss that will not go unnoticed when children return in September.
 
"At the inception of the Mandarin program here, the vision was for it to grow down [from Mount Greylock] as we were growing up," Principal Joelle Brookner said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, Willinet. "And the the growing down from the high school hasn't happened at all. Where we were going with our instructor kind of plateaued at fourth grade."
 
In fact, "downward growth" from the junior-senior high school seems unlikely as it looks for places to trim its budget, including scaling back electives.
 
"What we offer [at WES] is wonderful, but it's not a language or an immersion program," Brookner said. "It falls under the category of enrichment. We've been so fortunate to have Xiahong Wan, who is a gem of a person. But Dr. Noseworthy hit the nail on the head: We are making tough choices.
 
"We have a heavy heart about that decision."
 
One aspect of the FY16 budget gave the School Committee pause. Two members, Chris Jones and Dan Caplinger, questioned the wisdom of depleting the reserves that have been built up in the school's non-appropriated balances. 
 
Those balances are fed chiefly from revolver accounts like grants, school choice and fees. The school anticipates a non-appropriated balance of about $398,000 when it closes the books on the 2014-15 school year; the budget for FY16 projects a balance of about $255,000 — a drop of 35 percent.
 
That is because the budget calls for spending about $688,000 in non-appropriated funds while taking in about $544,500.
 
"Based on that rate, if we keep going in that direction for [FY]17 and [FY]18, we might have a couple of years of that rate before our revolvers were tapped out," Caplinger said.
 
"Yes, the situation Mount Greylock is in right now," Business Manager Lynn Bassett answered.
 
Chairwoman Valerie Hall pointed out that the $255,000 still represents nearly 4 percent of the school's bottom line budget.
 
"That's for now," Caplinger said.
 
School Committee member Richard Reynolds asked how the panel could build up those reserves by opening more school choice slots. Schools in Massachusetts receive $5,000 from the state for each school-choice student, a funding level that in the past has frustrated the Mount Greylock School Committee.
 
Williamstown Elementary is graduating 12 school choice pupils from its sixth grade in June, and Brookner answered Reynolds by pointing out the school always could add all 12 school choice back in to the lower grades.
 
But in the end, the School Committee voted on Wednesday to follow the administration's recommendation and add five new school choice slots for the 2015-16 academic year: four in the kindergarten and one in the first grade.
 
If all five slots are filled (by lottery if more applicants apply), it will bring the total number of school choice students to 36 in a projected student population of 396, about 9 percent.
 
The School Committee also voted on Wednesday to approve the $6.4 million budget as drafted and present it to Williamstown's Finance Committee on Wednesday, March 18. The Fin Comm and Board of Selectmen each will make a recommendation on the school budget before it goes to the May 19 annual town meeting.
 
In other business, the School Committee approved the 2015-16 school calendar, which the administration coordinated with the calendar at Mount Greylock for the benefit of families with children at both schools.
 
Classes will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 2, with a projected last day of school (before snow days are added) of Tuesday, June 14, 2016. The school's December vacation will run from Thursday, Dec. 24, through Sunday, Jan. 3, and, once again, there will be a half day of school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
 
Also on Wednesday night, Caplinger provided his colleagues with an update from the joint Superintendency Union 71/Mount Greylock committee that is searching for a permanent superintendent. Caplinger said the panel had decided on its finalists and, pending notification of the finalists, hopes to conduct interviews as soon as the end of this week.
 
"We had good candidates to choose from," Caplinger said. "The discussion was very lively and helpful."
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