HADLEY — Even as several school districts across the region anticipate reducing staffing levels before next school year as they face a so-called fiscal cliff, school officials in Hadley are maintaining the current level of services and teaching positions at Hopkins Academy and Hadley Elementary School.

The School Committee Monday voted unanimously to recommend a $9.64 million fiscal year 2025 budget proposal brought forward by Superintendent Annie McKenzie, preserving both staffing and programming.

The budget is $373,331, or 4.03% higher than this year’s $9.26 million budget, but meets guidelines from town officials to limit the increase on local taxes to 1.88%. The town’s contribution to the budget is rising to $7.89 million, or $145,921 above this year’s $7.75 million contribution.

School Committee Chairwoman Humera Fasihuddin said she is pleased that the budget proposal came in at or below guidance from the town, calling it “really great news.”

McKenzie said adjustments were made to the original budget, which had sought 3.75% increase in municipal support, to bring it in line with the town’s advisory. These changes were largely done, she said, by applying $1.17 million from the school choice account, with enrollment of students coming to the schools from other cities and towns continuing to be strong. At least 124 school choice students are enrolled this year, up from 110 school choice students last year. Hadley is also benefiting from a better ratio of incoming school choice students than students who are leaving the district.

At a Finance Committee meeting last week, McKenzie explained that it was appropriate to increase the school choice money from the $920,000 used to balance this year’s budget.

“We monitor and we make sure that if we’re increasing the use of school choice in the operating budget that we can demonstrate that we are seeing a similar uptick in school choice enrollments,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie said Hadley has avoided hitting the fiscal cliff, in part, by using the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Relief Fund money for one-time expenses, like capital needs, rather than the operating budget.

Enrollment at Hopkins Academy and Hadley Elementary School is showing signs of strength, with the 526 students at the two schools an increase of 23 students since Oct. 21. McKenzie said a majority of this increase is Hadley families opting to keep their children enrolled in town.

The number of students at vocational schools has dropped from 35 five years ago to an estimated 13 next year, allowing the out-of-district tuition to drop by $87,305, to $567,062,

“We are grateful to have our families here, we really appreciate that,” McKenzie said.

The budget includes the addition of two full-time education support professionals and bringing professional development in house to save money, with some spending on textbooks moved to state grants from the budget.

In information McKenzie supplied to the School Committee, she attributes the creation of college and career pathways over the past five years as a way of keeping and drawing students to Hopkins Academy, which now offers an Early College High School Pathway, an Innovation Pathway in Business and Finance, an Innovation Pathway in Life and Environmental Sciences, a Future Educators Pathway, and paid internships for qualified students in science, technology, engineering and math, or S.T.E.M, fields. The district is also anticipating it will apply for a Technology and Information Sciences Pathway and a Clean Energy Pathway to launch next year.

Hadley schools have also received grant funding to collaborate with Hatfield and Granby schools on a public safety academy, allowing students to specialize in the three districts to pursue education that could lead them to careers in public safety, firefighting and EMT work. There are other successful programs in Hadley, including the elementary Spanish program and Project Lead the Way.

McKenzie presented slides showing that in fiscal year 2022, the most recent with data available from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the per-pupil spending in Hadley schools was $18,857, higher than Northampton, Easthampton, South Hadley, Belchertown and Granby, but trailing Hatfield, as well as Amherst-Pelham Regional and Amherst, which topped the per-pupil spending at $23,932 and $27,911, respectively.

Still, McKenzie said Hadley is supportive of the schools and she is and grateful to work in a town that is responsible in its budgeting.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.