WESTFIELD – Westfield Public Schools Chief FInancial Officer Ronald R. Rix presented a budget proposal of $64,394,820 for Fiscal Year 2021, which represents a two percent increase, at the April 6 School Committee meeting.
Rix called the budget, “very lean,” reflecting the needs of the school and the district’s responsibility to the taxpayers. He said this will be a challenging year with the fiscal situation and the health crisis.
Currently, the increase to the city is $697,813, but that could decrease depending on the amount of state aid, Rix said.
Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said they were displeased by the increase of $519,465 for Westfield in the governor’s budget for Chapter 70, because they were hoping for more from the Student Opportunity Act, which increased the formula based on the number of high need categories in the student population.
“If the House Ways & Means Committee gives us an increase, the city ask will be that much less,” Czaporowski said, adding, “At this point we only have the governor’s budget. Normally the House Ways and Means is our target, but it’s out late.”
Czaporowski highlighted the priorities for the coming year, which include expanding early college and dual enrollment opportunities, and investing in pathways in health care, social services, engineering, criminal justice and culinary hospitality.
Czaporowski said the current health care crisis underscores the number one employment need for health care professionals.
Another priority for the district is to increase social emotional learning supports, which includes adding a behaviorist position.
The district will continue the integration of technology, which has also been highlighted by the current crisis. Rix said they had just completed the 1:1 rollout at Westfield Intermediate School, which assigns a dedicated chromebook to each student for use in school, before the schools closed. A survey of families needing to pick up devices for remote learning yielded 1,025 responses, more than Czaporowski had expected, and he said WIS had the most requests. Families are on a schedule to pick them up this Wednesday through Friday at the schools.
Rix said in the budget there is funding for replacement parts for chromebooks at Westfield Middle School, and more will most likely be needed after all of the chromebooks going out are returned.
Czaporowski said while they had been including $250,000 a year for technology, this year they cut that number back to $100,000. He also said the district currently has a technology coach but wants to upgrade that the position to technology supervisor.
“Seeing what we’ve done with the remote learning plan, I truly believe education is going to change forever after this,” Czaporowski said.
The district plans to maintain class sizes at 20 for K-2, and 25 for 3-12, and continue to focus on its theme of “relationships, relevance and rigor” in the schools.
Rix said there are thirteen less positions than budgeted in FY20. The net increase for personnel in the budget is $146,000, mostly due to salary increases. He said there will be a minimum reduction and layoff of staff in FY21.
He said there will be some health care savings to the city with less staff. He also said the district is working with the city and the mayor’s office on a maintenance plan, which will combine the district and city departments under a Director of Facilities.
“In this budget we have proposed fully funding maintenance. We are working with the city on which portions could get moved over as the transition begins,” Rix said.
Czaporowski said it will be a gradual reduction during the transition. “I would not expect to see significant savings until at least year two or three,” he said, adding that eventually there will be savings on both sides, and the tradesmen currently working for the district will be available to the city.
“If you take the increase we’ve proposed, that leaves an additional $697,000 we’re looking for. Last year, we were able to give a zero percent increase to the city because of the Chapter 70 funding increase. I don’t know where that’s at right now,” Rix said, adding, “Without the offsets, the budget would be $2 million higher.”
“As I’ve been doing budget meetings with department heads, we estimate we’re $5 to $6 million down due to loss in revenue, meals tax, hotel tax, and state aid. We don’t expect a lot of grants,” said Mayor Donald F. Humason, Jr., de facto chair of the School Committee.
TIm O’Connor said the School Committee has been in discussion with city auditor Christopher Caputo, who told him the budget wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. “We understand the difficult times we’re in,” O’Connor said.
“Unanticipated, of course. Nobody knows when we’ll be able to climb out of the whole. Not just Westfield, not just Massachusetts, but the entire country,” Humason said.
Finance subcommittee chair Ramon Diaz, Jr. said in the past, the mayor has given them some direction before they reviewed the budget line by line. He said they have also in the past proposed a number to be cut at the end of the process. “Next meeting, we’ll go line by line, and propose a number,” Diaz said.
A tentative date of April 21 at 6 p.m. was set for a remote budget review by a meeting of the whole. Diaz said he hopes to include public participation by email at the start of the meeting, if possible.
