Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Bellville discusses the FY26 proposed budget at the finance and budget subcommittee meeting.
Photo credit: ChicopeeTV
CHICOPEE — During its May 5 meeting, Chicopee School’s Budget and Finance Director John Miarecki met with the School Committee to present the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.
The recommendation from the budget subcommittee was a recommendation of approximately $132 million for an FY26 budget request.
The presentation included a FY26 budget breakdown, the education stabilization breakdown and FY26, FY27 and FY28 projections.
The proposed budget for FY26 is approximately $133 million, which is about a $5 million increase from FY25.
The FY26 budget includes $101.2 million worth of salaries and $32 million worth of expenses.
Chapter 70 funding is set to increase by approximately $6.5 million from FY25 to a total of $100 million, and city contribution is also set to increase by $1.3 million, for a total of $36.4 million.
For administration building positions, the budget proposes to reduce seven districtwide content specialists, add two directors and add five family engagement liaisons.
The reduction of positions may not mean layoffs as last year, Chicopee school administration moved to a more “needs based” budget which focuses on potentially reorganizing positions to accommodate what is needed in each building.
At the finance and budget subcommittee meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Accountability Jennifer Bellville explained, “We were trying to put people in the right buckets so as we continued through the year, there were shifts in the budget of we might have been capturing a staff member in a different place, and then we moved them to the correct place and so there were some additions and deletions there as well.”
She also stated that even if the presentation says “reduction” of a position in a certain building, it may do with the reorganization of a specific program or needs throughout the district and may not mean that a person is being fired.
It could also mean that a position was never filled, or others were able to fill another position needed in the district.
“At this point, we are fortunate that we are not really looking at any true layoffs in the sense of reduction and force,” Bellville stated.
City costs are set to increase by $3 million. Miarecki explained most of the increase is from insurance rates rising.
“We’ve gone up over 30% in our city costs over the last four years,” he stated.
Chicopee Public Schools is set to go out to bid for transportation, but Miarecki said they worked with their provider to come up with an estimate of the increase which is predicted to increase to $12.6 million in the budget.
For the next steps, Miarecki said his office will put out a hearing notice to host a public hearing on Wednesday, May 21, during the School Committee meeting.
If approved by the School Committee, the budget will be sent to the City Council for the final approval in June.
