EAST LONGMEADOW — Assistant Superintendent for Business Pamela Blair presented the East Longmeadow Public Schools’ budget development for fiscal year 2027 during the School Committee meeting on Jan. 5.
The district carried over $925,000 from FY25 into FY26 and projects $900,000 to carry into FY27, The goal is to try to not spend one full year’s revenues in 2027.
A large revenue source for the district is the Chapter 70 state aid, which provides funding for school operations. It also establishes minimum spending requirements for each school district and minimum requirements for each municipality’s share of school costs. The amount won’t be disclosed for FY27 until around the third week of January, but was $15.5 million for the current FY26.
Grants are another form of revenue utilized in the budget process, staying pretty similar from year to year. During the meeting, the committee accepted two grants from Grynn & Barrett in the amount of $1,057.75 to the Mapleshade gift account and $2,043.41 to Birchland Park Middle School’s gift account.
The district has a number of revolving accounts, which “separately accounts for specific revenues and earmarks them for expenditure by a board or officer without appropriation for particular purposes to support the activity, program or service that generated the revenues,” according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
The athletic account, which covers the $500,000 that the athletic department costs, is one of the largest revolving accounts. The School Choice account is also relied on heavily, covering $350,000 to $450,000 for supplies. The account allots $5000 per pupil with reimbursement for special education costs. $358,000 carried over from FY25 into FY26 and a revenue of $283,000 is projected, leaving $292,000 to roll over into FY27.
On the expenditures side for FY27, the current budget will be around $36.9 million. Salaries in the district make up around 80% at $29.7 million, with contractual obligations soon to affect the operating budget.
There are over 240 teachers going into their third and final year of contracts. Ninety-nine paraprofessionals are currently on their final contract year and will have negotiations for 2027 in the near future. There are 19 secretaries in the secretary association’s bargaining unit in the second year of its contract and 18 custodians who follow that same contract. There are 15 administrators and four central office clerical staff with individual contracts and 11 employee at-will agreements with individuals performing services for individualized education programs.
Blair said the expense side of the budget is $7.2 million, approximately 20%. The total operating budget is $4.5 million, leaving $2.7 million for everything else. Digital licences cost around $60,000 with some of that price covered by the School Choice revolving account. These typically go up around 3-5% yearly and the committee is trying to be fiscally conservative because many of the licenses are tied into the curriculum.
Blair also noted that the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative, which provides services for career and technical education, special education, transportation and Medicaid reimbursement, reduced the regular transportation by one bus for FY27. Blair said she is trying to figure out why and is concerned it may cause overcrowded buses and buses arriving at school late.
The committee was scheduled to meet with the Town Council to discuss the budget on Jan. 13, after Reminder Publishing’s deadline. Coverage of this meeting will appear in the Jan. 22 edition.
During the meeting, the committee also discussed questions for the superintendent candidates who were scheduled to be interviewed on Jan. 15. Coverage of the interviews and the committee’s discussion will appear in the Jan. 22 edition of The Reminder.
