EASTHAMPTON — The school district plans to add five positions, including three new teachers, next school year as part of its $16.9 million budget for fiscal 2018.

The City Council will vote on the city’s proposed $40,307,360 fiscal 2018 budget Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the second-floor meeting area of the Municipal Building, 50 Payson Ave.

The school positions are a third-grade teacher at Center/Pepin elementary schools, a sixth-grade teacher and custodian at White Brook Middle School, and an English teacher and paraprofessional at Easthampton High School.

“We have a growing enrollment in Easthampton,” said Dayle Doiro, the district’s director of business services. “It’s no surprise we need to add staffing to accommodate.”

This year the proposed school budget is $16,929,21, or a 2.5 percent increase from fiscal 2017. Though the district is experiencing growth, the new jobs follow an extended period of budget cuts in which dozens of full- and part-time positions were cut over nearly a decade.  

Within the last two years, the school budget has increased, allowing positions and programs that were cut in the past to be restored as well as adding positions that are needed. For example, the budget for fiscal 2017 allowed the middle school to restore its foreign language program.

Mayor Karen Cadieux said it was through restructuring, consolidation of offices and frugal fiscal management that the city could honor the school department’s budget request.

“This allows us to grow,” Cadieux said last month. “We’re very frugal.”

For example, Cadieux said, the tax collector and treasurer positions were combined after the former tax collector retired last August. The city then started restructuring and consolidated the two offices into one for cross-training and efficiency.

But since budgets have been cut in years past, Cadieux said the city is still catching up.

Last year, the city was able to hire six school personnel, two public works staffers, a police officer, a firefighter and an emergency dispatcher.

In other budget highlights, the Emily Williston Library requested $307,316 for fiscal 2018 — over $100,000 more than the previous year.

“Our goal is to have our operations fully funded by the city,” library director Nora Blake said.

The library is partially funded through the private nonprofit Public Library Association of Easthampton, which was established in the 1860s by Samuel Williston.

Additional funding is needed to pay for landscaping and repairs. Last year, fundraisers and donations contributed $10,000 to the library.

Blake said it was the library’s first attempt to get the itself fully funded by the city.

With a tight budget, Blake said, the library lacks up-to-date technology. Many of the computers are obtained after they were used by other organizations. And while the library just increased its internet speed, it still needs to be updated, she said.

She said the library also wants to offer a broader fiction collection, more movies and video games, and more programs such as a computer code club.

Other items on the budget include $2,555,043 for the Police Department, $2,000,340 for the Fire Department and $603,014 for the Highway Department.

Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.

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