HATFIELD — A $1.26 million Proposition 2½ general override to support and improve town and school services will be brought to voters at both Town Meeting and the town election next month.

At a joint meeting with the Finance Committee on Monday, the Select Board voted to present to voters a plan that would use a successful override to support a municipal operating budget of between $13.9 million and $14.3 million.

While the budgets are not finalized for any department, the School Committee, meeting the same evening, outlined concerns with potential reductions and loss of staff and programs. School officials estimate that an additional $467,537, for a $5.7 million budget in fiscal year 2024, is needed to maintain level services.

Should the schools go $264,000 beyond level services, for a $5.97 million budget, several additions can be made, including foreign language instruction at the elementary school, computer programming at Smith Academy and more middle school sports. The idea is also to sustain enrollment by keeping students who live in Hatfield and bringing in more students via school choice.

Beyond the schools’ seeking $731,537 in additional funding, the balance of the town’s request for the override would support other municipal departments, including police, fire and public works.

As part of plans to streamline budgets, the School Committee — along with all other town departments — has instead been asked to reduce this year’s $5.24 million spending by 2%, removing $105,000 in spending.

School Committee Chairwoman Christy Boudreau said cutting the budget will have a direct impact on education, by increasing class sizes, no longer having two classrooms per grade, increasing some classes to 25 students, and reducing offerings. “A lot of shrinkage” in services, is how Boudreau put it.

“We would be looking at the loss of eight full-time teaching positions to make this cut,” Boudereau told the Select Board at a recent meeting, adding that Superintendent Michael Wood would also have his hours reduced.

Committee member Adam Sullivan, who serves on the School Committee’s Finance Subcommittee, said merging classes, offering fewer electives, AP classes and sports, and eliminating the separation of the middle school, meaning less focused attention on the seventh and eighth graders, would all be consequences of a reduced budget for schools.

Supporting an override is an investment in the town and way of life for people, said committee member Catherine Englehardt. She describes the situation as a “perfect storm of financial crisis.”

As the Select Board and Finance Committee have been evaluating a proposed Proposition 2½ operating budget override, Select Board Chairwoman Diana Syznal said at an earlier meeting that she would favor a menu-style override where voters could decide to support spending for specific departments. That is the approach the town used in 1993, though almost all of the overrides on that ballot failed.

Szynal said in putting together a fiscal year 2024 budget, town officials need to make sure departments are getting what is needed, providing services really necessary for the town “and not doing things that sort of shoot ourselves in the foot.” One concern is that stripping the school budget might mean losing students in coming years, which would cost the schools needed revenue.

Already, Hatfield is seeing the tuition received from out-of-town students drop from $906,490 to $688,442, in part due to an 11% decline in enrollment last year “We just haven’t been as competitive,” Boudreau said.

But Wood told the School Committee that there are 19 school choice applicants for next school year, and the school has seen more applicants since documents went online.

Smith Academy Principal Conor Driscoll said the school is also hoping to showcase itself during a May 4 event beginning at 4:30 p.m. that includes a Cooler Communities presentations by high school and elementary school students sharing climate-related projects. That day will also have a spring concert and art show and an annual cornhole tournament put on by middle schoolers.

Those outside the community can come to tour the school, similar to though not quite an open house, Driscoll said.

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