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McCann Budget Level-Funded for Fiscal 2019
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
01:33AM / Friday, February 23, 2018
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The McCann School Committee says it has responded to the outcry about rising assessments from the regional district's member towns last year.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The McCann School Committee unanimously approved a $9,343,958 budget for fiscal 2019 that is a .04 percent increase over this year’s budget.

The Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District budget is essentially level funded with only a $3,799 increase over fiscal 2018's $9,340,159 million budget.

"We want to stay true to our core mission here at McCann to have all of our programs run and run the right way," School Committee member Daniel Maloney Jr. said. "I think this budget does a good job of that and it is not what we want but it is what our communities can afford."

Maloney said the budget subcommittee this year asked Superintendent James Brosnan to try to "level" the municipal minimum and the municipal assessments and build a "net-zero" budget.

Brosnan said this was represented in the municipal assessment decrease from $676,619 to $489,745.

"We were able to finagle and use some other funding and make some changes here so that we could accommodate that piece," he said.

The town of Adams, which made up 32 percent of the student body this year, was very vocal about a 27 percent increase that brought its total assessment to more than $1 million for fiscal 2018. 

Brosnan said these concerns were heard and with many communities getting closer to their levy limits, the vocational school was able to provide some relief.

"Adams was the loudest ... but that was a good sample of other communities that quietly said, 'we can’t afford that,'" he said. "I think part of it is that our communities are getting closer and closer to that tax levy limit and are running out of money they can spend."

Maloney noted that state aid has remained flat and with rising costs, making budget cuts as they proposed in this budget could be damaging.

"When you start trimming more from staffing or other items like that sooner or later it’s going to catch up with us on the education side of things," he said. "We aren’t going to be able to do the things we need to do."

Brosnan pointed to the town assessments and noted that they are mostly driven by student enrollment. This year, North Adams takes the prize for highest enrollment with 148 students. The city's assessment will be $964,872.

Adams comes in second place with 129 students and its assessment will decrease to $940,717.

After Adams and North Adams, the assessments drop and the third largest contributor, Cheshire, will be assessed at $481,594; Lanesborough at $339,788; and Clarksburg at $306,146. All other assessments are under $250,000.

Brosnan walked the committee through the "vanilla" budget that really had no surprises with most items level funded or slightly increased or decreased.

He pointed out that health insurance was a saving grace of the budget with the combination of employees taking less expensive plans and the Berkshire Health Group standing by a 0 percent increase.

Insurance has dropped from $1,640,910 to $1,523,162.

School Committee members will present the budget to their respective town in the coming weeks. 

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