South Hadley superintendent presents $27.5M school budget ahead of override vote

The School Committee hosted its budget public hearing on March 11.
Photo credit: SHCTV15

SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley School Committee hosted its fiscal year 2027 budget hearing on March 11, where a $27.5 million budget was proposed to the committee by Superintendent Jennifer Voyik.

According to Voyik, the budget is about a $1.7 million, or 6.71%, increase from FY26.

South Hadley Public Schools is currently receiving $75 per pupil in Chapter 70 funding, which is set to increase by $131,325, or a 1.7% increase, for FY27.

Voyik’s presentation also looked at the 10-year history of the town’s appropriation to the school budget. After receiving approximately $25.8 million from the town last year, the proposal shows that South Hadley Public Schools are set to receive about $26.2 million, a 2% increase from FY26.

Budget drivers for the FY27 school budget include health insurance, utilities, positions moving from grants to the local budget, yellow bus transportation and contractual salary increases. Another budget driver is special education, including out-of-district placements, in-district positions and in-district contracted services.

There are 5.5 positions totaling $385,000 that are moving from grants to the local budget.

Voyik also discussed positions that are needed in the FY27 budget, including a multilingual teacher at South Hadley High School, a custodian, a nurse at Mosier School, a nurse at Skala School, 2.5 education therapeutic assistants and a special education teacher at Skala.
The South Hadley superintendent explained that a few of these positions have been split between schools for many years, and it is time to increase the amount of positions so that each school can get the same level of care or education.

With South Hadley residents set to vote on a potential tax override on April 14, Voyik also broke down how each override option would impact the schools.

“It really is sustainability,” Voyik stated.

If the $9 million tax override option is approved, there would be a 3% increase to the school budget each year from FY28-FY31. An $11 million override would include an increase of 4% each year from FY28-FY31.

Voyik explained how school districts conservatively need between a 4%-6% increase to maintain local services.

She explained, “If you go back and look at about how much it costs for just step-ups and [cost of living adjustment] increases every year. It’s approximately, for FY28, $677,000. Well, a 3% increase is only about $750,000, so if you think about all the other things within a district, [$677,000] to [$750,000] really doesn’t give you the ability to sustain. You would still have to have cuts with all of those other increases throughout the budget.”

Voyik said the $11 million tax override option would allow the schools to sustain the positions that they already have and potentially look at some strategic positions to help bring in some revenue over the next five years.

The presentation also covered positions that will have to be reduced, no matter which budget option is approved. Those positions include a math coach, ELA coach and 1.5 para-full-time equivalents.

Voyik also discussed five teaching positions, a middle school adjustment counselor and other staff positions that will be added due to grants and adjustments. There are also currently $725,000 of FY27 position requests that are still unfilled and are not currently included in any of the budget options.

o official vote was taken at the meeting. The School Committee is scheduled to vote on its budget at its next meeting on Wednesday, March 25. The budget is also subject to what the town officially approves at the April Town Election and May Town Meeting.

All budget documents are available on the South Hadley Public School website at southhadleyschools.org.