SOUTH HADLEY — South Hadley’s interim superintendent is warning that the slew of new executive orders and funding alterations coming from the Trump administration could destabilize the district’s budget next fiscal year if federal education and health care costs are cut.

“When it comes to the development of budgets, a certain type of predictability is helpful,” Interim Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said. “Recent presidential orders, particularly involving grants, have been the opposite of stabilizing because there is a lot of uncertainty.”

During the Jan. 30 School Committee meeting, McLaughlin explained that President Donald Trump’s attempt to freeze federal loans and grants — a move that was subsequently rescinded — could greatly impact the district’s budget. Each year, he said, the district depends on federal grants, particularly entitlement grants, to supplement local tax dollars. These grants are critical funding for instruction, professional development and multi-language learning.

“Any hint that those would be in jeopardy, (the grants) now become budget drivers, and complicate our goals of achieving what we wish to achieve for our students,” McLaughlin said.

School districts also depend on Medicaid and Medicare for some services like occupational therapy and physical therapy, and it’s unclear how Trump’s overhaul of the federal government’s budget will impact public health insurance reimbursements for these services.

“The minute there is a potential change to that, a threat to it, a possibility of an outright cut or anything like that, it’s very destabilizing because it’s very hard to predict what that would be,” McLaughlin said. “Ultimately, the decision would be do we fund those services at the difference between what the reimbursement was and what it would be if we didn’t get it, or do we identify what services are lost as a result.”

However, he said the district will refrain from making any drastic budget changes until there is more concrete action by the Trump administration. McLaughlin notes that the federal funding freeze was quickly frozen itself: a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on the action on Feb. 3, blocking it from taking effect.

As the Trump administration halts and dismantles federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, McLaughlin adds that the district might lose funding for these initiatives as well. The district plans to continue its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and will seek guidance from state advisors and legal council in the face of retribution for continuing such programs.

For now, district officials are waiting to see if Trump’s actions become concrete enough to act on.

“The challenges that lie ahead are always great in the budget cycle, and they are made exponentially more complicated right now,” McLaughlin told the committee. “I think we will all have to resist the temptation to rise and fall with the news of the moment, because that can get us off track.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.