CLARKSBURG, Mass. — School officials have shaved $90,000 out their $3 million budget for fiscal 2026. 

 

The reductions bring the total budget to $3,093,756, a 4.26 percent, or $126,346, increase over this year. 

 

The cuts include a reduction in hours in the school for the dean of students, cutting the tuition to Drury High by a third, imposing tuition for 4-year-olds in prekindergarten and trimming supplies and training. 

 

Town officials had pushed for the school to cut back from an anticipated 7 percent increase. That's frustrated school officials who point out the operating budget is only going up by 0.67 percent but covering nearly $200,000 for retirees' insurance and FICA is responsible for the hike.  

 

The Select Board was nominally supportive of the amended budget presented at Monday's joint meeting of the School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee but held off on endorsing it until the town budget is presented next week. 

 

"I appreciate your hard work going down. We don't have the town budget ready yet, so I'm not sure if we're in trouble," said Select Board Chair Robert Norcross. "I'm not sure if I can be in favor of this if we have to cut some more. So we are going to work on that."

 

Assistant Superintendent Tara Barnes had outlined two possible options in mid-April how to get the spending plan down to 2 percent or 4 percent; the latter called for about $90,000 in cuts and reduction in positions.

 

"We kind of tried to get creative and went back to the drawing board," Barnes said Monday.  "We really feel like we do not want to cut positions in our school that we are operating with — the crew that we need to be able to serve the students in your town."

 

School officials felt the interventionist position is critical to help struggling students. That position had been explained at previous meeting as a preventative remedy to head off further problems.

 

The dean of students, who has been doing administrative work and student as well as filling in as a substitute, will shift to 70 percent at Clarksburg and, if the other Northern Berkshire School Union districts agree, spend 30 percent of their time working with special education in those schools. This will result in about a $54,000 decrease for Clarksburg (which will still be picking up a portion of the NBSU cost). 

 

"The dean of students position is critical in order to help social emotional needs of students," said Barnes. "But we said, 'where can we kind of give a little bit and think about how to make some adjustments.'"

 

The business administrator position is currently vacant and Barnes, the special education director, has been taking on that duty with help from a former administrator. The dean would then pick up some of Barnes' responsibilities. 

 

She anticipated 10 children total in prekindergarten which would bring in $30,000, but cautioned that the number is not guaranteed. The school has not been charging residents for the 4-year-old prekindergarten up to this point. 

 

The biggest drop is in high school tuition, from $291,057 to $188,066, almost $103,000. 

 

"That really was a result of us understanding that there are a few high school students who are moving out of Clarksburg for next year," Barnes said. "But again, somebody can move into Clarksburg and we have to pay so, I mean, it gives us a little budget relief for now, and that helped out a lot." 

 

She said the teachers' union had agreed to a 2 percent cost of living raise for fiscal 2026, and 3 percent in the next two years of the contract. 

 

"They had asked for actually a little bit more, but they came down to 2 percent this year understanding the budget constraints that we're in, they're trying to work with the town," Barnes said. 

 

Non-teaching staff will get 3 percent, in line with what other town staff are getting next year. 

 

A couple line items went up, including FICA by almost $5,000, and the amount of school funds went down $115,000 from the last budget draft to $150,000. The school has seen a declining number of school choice students because enrollment of town students has grown. This has resulted in more Chapter 70 school aid to the town but less in reserves under the school's control. 

 

"Those funds, I think we talked about it at the last meeting, have depleted a lot," said Barnes. "So that number had to come down, we just don't have that. I may be optimistic with the $150,000 honestly, we're still working with everyone in the town to try to make sure we have some accurate numbers there."

 

She cautioned that some reduced lines, such as psychological testing, high school tuition and special education placement, could change because the school is mandated to provide these to the town's children. 

 

"School choice funds are really our stabilization fund for the school. ... For example, when we mentioned, oh, three students are leaving, and we said, the same breath, three students can move in next September, we don't even know," Barnes said. "So school choice historically has been that place that stabilization ...

 

"We have nothing there, so we're in the same spot of what you're talking about before [with the town's stabilization account]. I'm glad that the town has made some progress on stabilization, and I hope that we can build up school choice in such a way that we're not feeling like we're running so tight against the line."

 

Superintendent John Franzoni, in response to questions about nonresidents enrolling in the school, said the committee is working on a policy that will require proof of residence. The school has had issues with custody arrangements and with using Clarksburg addresses of other family members, especially since it has significantly reduced the number of school choice slots. 

 

Enrollment is currently 174 residents at the school and 34 school choice, down from 58. The school choice students are clustered in the upper grades and will be graduating out over the next few years. 

 

"We have to look at what legal agreement those families have for their children reside, where they always say, where does their head rest in terms of where are they living," Franzoni said. "We do have some of those situations, and we make sure that we work together with the families. And we do, we ask the families to work together with us and be honest. ...

 

 "So if you know, if you reside in this town, it's pretty easy to prove that you're a resident of this town and you live here."