The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District School Committee approved a motion to increase the fiscal year 2027 operating budget to include around $86,000 projects for Wilbraham Middle School.
Reminder Publishing file photo
WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District unanimously approved an increase in the district’s operating budget, now set at $59,756,340, to include Wilbraham Middle School’s interim plan while waiting on a core program decision from the Massachusetts School Building Authority at the committee’s July 30 meeting.
The Wilbraham Select Board and Hampden Selectboard first discussed the plan at a July 23 joint meeting but Superintendent John Provost said he wasn’t comfortable going into a deficit spending mode without consulting the School Committee.
The plan includes one set of exterior double doors, lock replacements for all exterior doors, condensation pumps to dehumidifiers in non-air-conditioned spaces, hoses to transmit pumped water safely out of the building, portable air conditioning units with external venting and mini-split air conditioning units with accompanying electrical supplies and infrastructure upgrades.
The projects are estimated at $85,719, grounded in figures from recent district equipment purchases, project costs and vendor quotes. Most of the work is intended to be done in-house and the mini-split units are portable and can be used elsewhere in the district in the future.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy said it was a great use of funds and resources. School Committee member Michael Tirabassi applauded both the Wilbraham Select Board and the Hampden Selectboard for making progress.
“I think it’s very, quite frankly, very generous on part of Hampden to be considering stepping up to help with some of these expenses, understanding they don’t own the building but their children are there,” Tirabassi said. “I’m overwhelmed with how great this is.”
Provost said the select boards expressed a great deal of urgency to get started on the work as quickly as possible, to the extent of starting immediately.
“I think there were feelings that these projects would be able to garner support of the voters at fall Town Meeting,” Provost said. “I want to, I guess take your direction on whether you want us to start right now or wait until the funds come in.”
Tirabassi said there’s $230,000 in the excess and deficiency fund from the budget, and that the committee wouldn’t have to deficit spend if those funds were used.
Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources Doug Slaughter said the budget sources would need to be adjusted. This wouldn’t have an effect on Wilbraham and Hampden’s budget assessments because the money is coming from an existing source.
He added that the committee can also adjust the operating budget and town assessments to include the $85,719, which would require a vote at Town Meeting. The committee can go back and leverage E&D if voters reject it at Town Meeting.
“It’s sort of, which direction you want to give,” Slaughter said. “If you formally appropriate the E&D now, you’re not going to be asking them to take action on a change in their assessment, so you should probably want to ask if the assessment is the better way to get it.”
Tirabassi said a negative of using E&D is that the money is contributed to the next budget and there would be less money toward offsetting town assessments for fiscal year 2028. He asked if there was a way to begin the work before requiring votes from the town.
Slaughter added that there are some aspects of the interim plan already funded and underway, such as the exterior doors, and that the district would be more confident in starting the work regardless of funding mechanism if the School Committee is willing to commit to the $85,719.
“The option is, sort of, up to the committee,” Slaughter said. “We have several things we’re working on at the moment that are currently funded in the mix and available to us, it’s really just a question of how strong the committee wants to offer more than one option to fund it. If you’re committed to one or the other regardless, then that gives … the ability to go to the staff and say ‘you can start right now’ and then we figure out whether it’s a change to the assessment to the towns or whether it’s a leveraging of E&D.”
Kennedy said the one public comment for the plan stood against it, and that he thinks the Wilbraham Finance Committee, Wilbraham Capital Planning Committee and the Hampden Advisory Board should be involved before it is put forward, even if the committee chooses to use E&D funds.
Tirabassi said the problem is that not all of the committees meet during the summer, not all boards are constituted and the School Committee has to approve something for it to be at the fall Town Meeting.
School Committee member Tim Collins asked if the start of the school year will have better air quality and a lack of asbestos if the committee went ahead with the projects. Slaughter said the air quality has been decent and would be maintained and the asbestos work is complete with tile work planned.
“These types of system improvements will make it easier to maintain that and require less hands-on work,” Slaughter said. “I think we’ll be in a good, steady place. Is it optimal for that building or if we knew we were going to stay in the building for 20 years, could we take a different approach? Yeah, we probably would, but for the time horizon we’re talking about of about 6 to 10 years, this is a modest way to maintain a decent environment for the kids and for the staff.”
Collins added that the committee has an obligation to make the building as safe and healthy as possible before the students go back to school, and that he would be in favor of moving forward.
The School Committee still needs capital funds for a sander truck and network switches for Minnechaug Regional High School since it did not pass at Hampden’s Town Meeting in May.
Hampden Selectboard Chair John Flynn said the projects can be accommodated by extra Chapter 70 state aid and leave the assessment as it is if the committee is “passionate about getting the truck and the switches done.” He said “both could go down” if voters are upset about paying 20% for a building that Hampden doesn’t own.
School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau asked what the best plan is to separate the capital items from the increase in the operating budget assessment without jeopardizing everything.
Slaughter said the towns are in control of an appropriation or award, so it can be a single item or separated into pieces. The committee would be out of balance and need to readjust the budget if the separated pieces are not all approved, similar to how it did in May after Town Meeting.
Tirabassi made a motion to adopt an operating budget of $59,756,340, inclusive of the debt service payment for Minnechaug of $1,910,150 for FY27 for the HWRSD and to assess Wilbraham with $33,162,455 and Hampden with $9,919,905. The motion includes the interim project costs and passed 6-1 with Kennedy voting against it.
Tirabassi made a second motion to adopt a capital budget of $170,000 for FY27 and to assess Hampden with $34,652 and Wilbraham with $135,348 for the truck and network switches. The motion passed unanimously.
