Easthampton School Committee’s $24.9M budget proposal prioritizes curriculum overhaul for Mountain View

EASTHAMPTON — The School Committee will submit a $24.9 million budget next fiscal year, a $2.1 million increase from the current year’s budget, that would make substantial changes to the Mountain View School curriculum and introduce world languages — all while avoiding staff cuts.

Easthampton Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Balch presented the budget at the School Committee’s March 24 meeting. The finance subcommittee has met several times in recent months with Mayor Salem Derby to assemble the budget.

“When we’re publishing a budget and we’re looking at our budgetary decisions it has to align with our core values,” Balch said, opening the presentation. “And I think that is something you will see throughout our budget presentation.”

A focus this year is to bring new curriculum and cohesiveness to the Mountain View School, something Balch has marked as a priority since starting in the district last summer and has heard voiced from families.

“One thing when I entered was abundantly clear was that we had to really work on our middle school and I think our budget represents the desire from both our administrators, our leaders and our community to make some changes,” Balch said.

With three principals retiring, the district will shift to have a dean of students, a principal for the entire school and two assistant principals.

A dean of students has yet to be hired, but current Mountain View Head of School Jill Pasquini-Torchia is set to take the reins as the school’s new principal. Two new assistant principals have also been hired, Alex Freedman and Rachel Breton. The district’s Director of Business Services Julia Saari-Franks said the shift to this model will provide savings to help implement new curriculum.

Those savings would go toward new “Compass Labs,” a core class students will take along with math, science, English and social studies. The labs will be required for grades 6 to 8 with a different topic each year — a digital literacy lab for grade 6, a financial literacy lab for grade 7 and a civics lab for grade 8.

“We’ve tried to engage everyone in the process,” Balch said. “We’ve been talking to the middle school, we’ve been talking with our Mountain View Elementary School team. These are things we’re really excited for and that the district is committed to doing.”

After the presentation, School Committee members expressed excitement about the changes coming to the district, which some say they have wanted to see for years.

“I’ve been involved in one way or another in the schools for the last 10, 12 years now,” said School Committee Member Sam Hunter. “It’s just really amazing to see the ship kind of slowly turning in that time.”

While the budget maintains current staffing levels, several employees would transition into new roles, including new foreign language and STEAM positions, alongside an increase in hours for some staff.

“We’ve had a lot of tough conversations and thought really creatively about how to use the people we already have and to keep the people we already have,” Saari-Franks said.

The budget’s increase is mainly driven by personnel cost increases, out-of-district tuition increases and transportation fees, according to figures shown by Saari-Franks.

The current fiscal year’s approved budget is approximately $22.8 million. This will be the second year in a row that the district faces a more than $2 million increase if the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget is approved — the budget increased $2.1 million from 2025 to the current year.

The budget has grown substantially since its $17.9 million approval in 2023, with year-over-year increases accelerating. The district was able to use COVID-19 pandemic aid funding until funds ran out in 2026, causing a shift to larger increases since then.

Saari-Franks said one of the main cost drivers comes from personnel, with many teachers and employees working at the district for long periods. She said it is great to have teachers in the district adding stability for students, but it also comes at a cost.

This is the first year that the budget includes tuition increase estimates for vocational students in and out-of-district, and special education students that receive programming out of the district, Saari-Franks said in an interview with the Gazette.

Out-of-district tuition programming for special education students is projected to increase slightly more than 3%, a figure set by the state, which could result in upwards of a $1 million increase in tuition that the city must pay, following state rules. The district’s contract for special education transportation is also projected to increase, after the current contract ends this year.

The proposed budget will now be submitted along with every other department’s budget for Mayor Derby to assess. School Committee members showed optimism that the budget being proposed would pass, saying that Derby has attended each budget meeting thus far.

More budget and curriculum details will be discussed at the School Committee’s next meeting on April 14.

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