Erving School Committee Advances Draft Budget With Adjustment Counselor, 3-1

ERVING -- February 8, 2024, Erving School Committee advances FY 2025 draft budget with new counselor position to public hearing on 3-1 vote. The committee voted Thursday to bring a fiscal year 2025 elementary budget to a joint public hearing February 12 with the Select Board and Finance Committee, choosing the draft that includes an adjustment counselor over a level-service alternative. The draft carries a 2.1 percent increase over the current appropriation, with Chair Mackensey Bailey and members Kelly Sykes and Daniel Hammock voting in favor and member Mark Blatchley dissenting. The counselor's salary is budgeted at approximately $78,400; the position has been advertised three times this year without yielding a credentialed hire. Blatchley raised sustained concerns about the school returning more than $100,000 unspent in multiple recent fiscal years, $135,000 in FY 2023 and $144,000 in FY 2022, questioning whether budgets are built against prior expenditures rather than actual spending. The committee also unanimously accepted the Erving secondary school budget at $1,494,000, and tabled a decision on a potential second preschool classroom, costing roughly $97,500, to the March 19 meeting pending updated enrollment data.