SOUTH HADLEY — During the School Committee meeting on Dec. 5, Superintendent Mark McLaughlin and Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Business Operations Jennifer Voyik met with the committee to discuss a public hearing date for the fiscal year 2026 budget.
As the new year approaches, McLaughlin and Voyik said they have been discussing changing the time and date of the budget public hearing.
Usually, the budget hearing is hosted near the end of March, but Voyik thought about the possibility of trying to move the hearing to early March.
“Either the first meeting in March or having a special meeting for the budget hearing that way it can be separate from our regular School Committee agenda and then give the School Committee time to take in any feedback from the public that may come from the public budget hearing and then have an official vote at the next meeting on the budget,” Voyik explained.
The School Committee agreed with Voyik and School Committee Chair Eric Friesner voiced he liked the idea of a separate School Committee meeting for the budget.
The School Committee will explore the week of March 10 to 14 since it will be after the first School Committee meeting and before the second meeting.
Voyik explained, “If we have it that week it would give the School Committee a week before it officially voted on the budget.”
School Committee member Danielle Cooke said she will reach out to SHCTV and the Council on Aging for available dates the School Committee can host and stream the budget public hearing.
McLaughlin said he hopes that a date is decided upon by the next School Committee meeting so they can let the public know.
There was no update or presentation of the FY26 school budget.
Last year, the school budget saw a $934,000 increase to its FY25 budget after requesting a $995,000 increase.
The FY25 budget presentations showed that the budget included reducing 23 paraeducators and three teachers.
It also included adding approximately eight education teaching assistants, one teacher, one certified nurse assistant and one assistant principal.
The one additional teacher would be a teacher of the deaf, and the assistant principal is an archived position returning at South Hadley High School.
Some other significant changes in last year’s school budget included shifting school choice salaries to the local budget.
McLaughlin and the School Committee have talked about the district’s reliance on School Choice to supplement staff positions in the budget and have decided to change that formula last year.
McLaughlin said, “This is the first budget in some time, perhaps ever, that is adapting the unreliable School Choice revenues that change and fluctuate from year to year. This budget has historically included substantially numbers of teachers’ salaries relying on school choice.”
The FY25 school budget included shifting $700,000 in School Choice salaries to the local budget.
