South Hadley Public Schols Superintendent Jenn Voyik gives a fiscal year 2027 projected budget update during the Jan. 21 School Committee meeting.
Photo credit: SHCTV15
SOUTH HADLEY — Amidst possible cuts to the budget in fiscal year 2027, South Hadley Public Schools Superintendent Jenn Voyik gave a projected budget update during the Jan. 21 School Committee meeting.
The town of South Hadley has spent the last few months discussing these potential deficits and complications from increasing costs, such as health insurance.
At a recent Selectboard meeting, Town Administrator Lisa Wong shared possible override options that the town and Budget Task Force are reviewing. The task force has looked at raising the tax levy by $3 million, $6 million or $9 million, which is based on what the town needs to level service the budget for a five-year projection.
Voyik stated in her presentation that a deficit budget and the $3 million override scenario “[are] really the same thing when look at the numbers.”
If the School Department went the $3 million override route, Voyik said they would have to cut all sports, all afterschool activities and eliminate music from the middle school and high school.
Three administrator positions and 15 student facing position would also be reduced, and the potential cuts would increases class sizes to 25 students per class for kindergarten and first grade.
Second and grade and fourth grade class sizes would increases to 27 to 30 students per class, and fifth grade to 12th grade classes would rise to 30 students per class.
“Teachers would do their best to educate students, but even in the class sizes that we have right now and in classroom visits, it is difficult to almost impossible to try to be there and support every single in you class when you have so many students with different needs in your class,” Voyik said.
If the town decided to raise the tax levy by $6 million, all sports, all afterschool activities and music at the middle school and high school would be eliminated.
Two administrative positions and 10 student facing positions would be reduced, and class sizes would still increase, though not as drastically as the first option.
In the $9 million override scenario, Voyik said the School Department would be close to level budget for four to five years. She stated, “this isn’t a forever solution, but we would be close to level budget.”
There may also need to be an increase to some fees, and there still may be a need for some cuts in this scenario, according to Voyik.
During the meeting, Voyik also gave a presentation on the extracurricular activities in the school district and broke down the expenses and revenue. It showed a five-year trend of what it takes to run athletics.
Although they charge user and gate fees, which has brought in anywhere from $87,000 to $140,000, the total revenue minus expenses from FY22 to FY26 is negative.
Between the athletic revolving account and the local budget, the School Department spends $400,000 for athletics each year. For FY26, there is currently a deficit of approximately $155,000. FY23 saw the highest deficit at about $376,000, according to Voyik.
Voyik said she shared the presentation just to help the community better understand what it costs to run these programs.
She explained, “I just want to make sure that the community understands the point of sharing the spreadsheet like this … just so that community knows how much it costs. This isn’t that we shouldn’t have sports or not. I just think it’s important because sometimes it’s hard to understand, unless you’re seeing the numbers, what a program costs to run.”
The Budget Task Force, after meeting for months, is reviewing the need for a potential override and will produce a report by Feb. 9.
There will be a multi-board meeting on Feb. 10 to discuss the Budget Task Force report. The boards will also discuss the potential of hosting a Special Town Meeting for Feb. 25 to talk about the budget, problems and potential solutions.
Voyik said the town is still “hoping for a miracle,” and the School Department is “still trying to look at the budget from every angle to try and see if there is a way to reduce or save.”
She said during the School Department needs closer to $1 million a year in the overall school budget to sustain what the district has right now.
