Superintendent John Provost presents ways to bridge budget shortfalls on March 5.
Photo credit: Erin Dowding
WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District could be facing a budget shortfall in fiscal year 2027 with a projected $3.5 million gap between what the towns are expected to be able to offer and a level service budget.
With the budget entering its late stages ahead of town meetings in May, Superintendent John Provost presented some cost cutting measures at the HWRSD School Committee’s March 5 meeting.
Certain objectives look to raise fees, leave vacant positions unfilled and cut funding to certain positions and extracurriculars.
Committee member Michael Tirabassi said it’s not unusual that the level services budget, which is to keep everything the same, is “coming out at more money than the towns are in a position to support, or prepared to support.”
“What is unusual this year is that, sometimes the gaps I’ve seen have been like $200,000 gap between the two, or $500,000 gap between the two,” Tirabassi said. “We’re looking at a $3.5 million gap right now between what would be needed for a level service budget to run the school district and where the towns, I think are, somewhat prepared.”
He added that Provost was directed to make a list, because “regardless of what happens, we are going to be looking at some form of reductions to things that are offered in the district because of financial constraints,” according to Tirabassi.
Members of the committee met with the Hampden Selectboard during its March 2 meeting. The Selectboard said it could handle about a $450,000 increase in the budget, and a $750,000 increase from Wilbraham would leave the district with a $2.46 million budget gap.
“Wilbraham felt they were in a position to offer an increase in the budget of $1.5 million,” Tirabassi said. “To be able to accept that, Hampden would have to be in a position to do a [$662,000] increase, and that would leave us with a $1.45 million budget gap.”
Provost began his presentation on ways to bridge the shortfall and said that one of the things he hopes people take away from it is that most of government is about money.
“I remember being told that, you know, you have three resources as an administrator,” Provost said. “You have people, time and money, but really you only have one resource that counts, which is money, because money will buy you more people or more time.”
He said over the past 18 years, the district’s foundation enrollment has declined by 21.2%. In response, the district has had to implement a managed contraction, reducing its teacher workforce by 19.3%, going from 257.6 full time equivalent teachers to 208, closing two schools and eliminating at least seven bus routes.
“The challenges faced by HWRSD are not the result of a sudden financial crisis, but rather a decades-long, forced contraction of programming necessitated by an unsustainable funding model,” Provost said. “The foundation formulas high sensitivity to overall student enrollment has led to a gradual erosion in state support, effectively forcing the district to downsize its educational capacity, despite strong local commitment to quality education.”
Provost said he doesn’t consider what he brings to the committee to be recommendations, but just ideas, adding that he hopes the committee thinks some are horrible ideas because they all have to do with reductions that “will make the district not as good as it is now.”
The presentation named one objective to reduce assessments by increasing budgetary offsets, including a 5% athletic fee increase, 5% preschool fee increase, 10% class C and D building use fee increase, School Choice account offset increase and an excess and deficiency fund utilization increase. These would reduce Hampden’s budget by $48,133 and Wilbraham’s by $181,867, for a $230,000 total reduction.
“We’re looking at 280 communities, or districts, out of 350 in the commonwealth that are in the same position we’re in due to this funding, including Boston,” Provost said. “One of our strategies, not listed here, is increasing revenue from the state … anything that we can do to add on the revenue side allows us to get to where we need without having to go into these strategies.”
Some reductions could be by cutting back on additional paid duties and not funding certain extracurriculars or positions, such as not funding coaching positions for teams that have not run for several years like the freshman girls basketball and robotics teams. A freshman football assistant coach, strength and conditioning, assistant director for drama club or table tennis, to name a few, also wouldn’t be funded.
Provost said there are several steps if nothing was reduced and the budget didn’t pass by both towns. The first step would be the committee reconsidering the budget to bring it down to a number it thinks will pass, and then a districtwide meeting with voters from both towns to see if the budget passes. If none of the steps work and the budget isn’t passed, Provost said the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education comes in and decides the budget.
