Members of the South Hadley community express their opinions on the proposed FY26 school budget at the public hearing on March 11.
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SOUTH HADLEY — Both the town and school administration have stated that the fiscal year 2026 budget cycle will be a tough year, to which Superintendent Mark McLaughlin and Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Business Operations Jennifer Voyik recently provided some updates.
The school administration recently presented its proposed updated budget at the March 6 School Committee meeting and hosted a public hearing for the budget on March 11.
Before the presentation, McLaughlin provided an executive summary of the budget that was recently published. He read, “The process is increasingly challenged by state and federal government funding formulas that do not keep up with the expenses associated with mandates or fixed expenses like health insurance which has rates increasing by as much as 20% this year along.”
Voyik provided a Chapter 70 funding breakdown at a previous meeting that included approximately a $134,000 increase. Between all the estimated revenues and the estimated expenses, South Hadley schools are looking at “pretty much” breaking even as far as state aid, according to Voyik.
Due to increased health insurance and transportation costs, the district had to do a deeper analysis of its spending. The school leadership team conducted an analysis of its revenue and impacts and learned that the FY26 expenses plus the FY26 revenue equaled an operating deficit of approximately $2.1 million to achieve a level services budget.
McLaughlin explained, “Just to achieve the budget that we had last year and the services that we could provide last year, not taking into account the dramatic increases that we have spoken frequently over the last few weeks.”
The leadership team began to determine its priorities with personnel, programming and services.
Proposed cuts at the elementary level include a kindergarten teacher, a first grade teacher, a fourth grade teacher, a special education teacher, a transitional therapeutic classroom specialist, a reading interventionist and a math interventionist.
Michael E. Smith Middle School is set to lose two English teachers, three math teachers, a reading interventionist, a custodian and a certified nursing assistant.
Positions suggested to cut at the high school include a Spanish teacher moving to the middle school, a special education teacher, a custodian and certified nursing assistant. The middle and high school band teachers are proposed to become one position.
Although 19 paraeducators were cut last year, the district was recently forced by DESE to hire 23 paraeducators which added a total of $557,000 to the FY25 budget to meet individualized education plans.
Personnel was not the first item that was looked at, according to McLaughlin.
An analysis of yellow bus transportation was conducted, and it was decided if they decrease the radius within which transportation is provided, allowed by state law, the South Hadley Public Schools could save $250,000 annually.
South Hadley also proposed moving transportation services in house, which would save $600,000 annually as well. The town will allocate $1.2 million in free cash to purchase vans for special education transportation. After transportation cuts, the deficit remained at $1.3 million as the focus shifted to priorities that will be impacted.
Starting with high school services, the presentation showed that 13 services are set to be cut which would total $31,000 in savings.
Those services include ski club, math club and debate club advisors, a band assistant director, hockey, outdoor track, swimming assistants, varsity hockey, varsity swimming, a junior varsity band director, marching band percussion arranger, gaming club and improv advisor.
Voyik said there are multiple stipends to continue to support the music program. Other proposed cuts to middle school services are primarily comprised of stipend services including the Washington DC trip and Cape Cod Capers.
These cuts do not mean that the trips can’t happen but that the funding for those stipends will need to be incorporated into those fundraising efforts.
Additional services that are proposed to be cut included the head teacher at each of the four schools, four substitute callers and three team leaders totaling $33,795. The school district still must determine how the substitute calling function will continue.
The administration also reduced the curriculum budget from $25,000 to $0.
The impacts of these cuts will include certain class sizes being increased based on the position that was cuts including kindergarten classes.
“There is no cut that doesn’t hurt,” McLaughlin stated, “This has been a very unpleasant experience, a very, very unpleasant reality. I express my profound sadness and apologies to every person who received notification yesterday of a loss of employment. I feel terrible for every student whose services will be impacted by these cuts.”
The school administration met with South Hadley High School Student Council and SHEA President Amy Foley to begin a letter writing campaign for the administration to gather letters from students to provide to state Rep. Homar Gomez and state Sen. Jake Oliveira.
Town administrators and superintendents will be testifying at the House Ways and Means Committee on March 24 on the direct and harmful impact to the students of the state’s outdated funding formulas.
The School Committee is set to met again on Thursday, March 20.
