Great Barrington — At the Berkshire Hills Regional School District Committee meeting on Thursday, February 12, Superintendent Peter Dillon presented his proposed fiscal 2027 budget.
The total gross operating budget for fiscal 2027 as proposed by Dillon is $38,828,181, a $1,624,171 (4.37 percent increase) from this year’s gross operating budget of $37,204,010.
As proposed, Great Barrington, which has the highest student enrollment in the district, would pay $23,811,604 in operating assessments, an increase of $1,627,267 from this fiscal year; Stockbridge would pay $4,287,081, an increase of $202,207 from this fiscal year, and West Stockbridge would pay $3,961,550, an increase of $416,969 from this fiscal year.
While Dillon has proposed increases to the budget, the student enrollment from Great Barrington and Stockbridge are projected to decrease in the next school year.
Great Barrington is expected to have 606 students enrolled in the next school year, a decrease of 14 students from this year, and Stockbridge is projected to have 107 students enrolled, a decrease of three students.
West Stockbridge is projected to have 101 students enrolled in the school district in the next school year, an increase of one student from this current year.
“This is going to be a difficult and impactful budget situation,” Dillon told the members of the committee. “We think that our overall increase is well managed and the impact on students and staff is limited.”
Dillon went on to say, “The gross operating budget is going up 4.37 [percent], and that’s a great number,” but called the net assessment increase to all towns of 7.81 percent “a little less great.”
School-by-school budget impacts
For Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School, Dillon is proposing the reduction of first and second grade sections from four to three sections each. Dillon said next year’s first grade class would have 51 students, with 52 students in the second grade class. He said the decrease in sections would increase each class size from 13 to 17 students. “I’m a big proponent of small class size, and actually have advocated for that my whole career,” Dillon said. “I think the difference from 17 to 13 is less impactful than the difference from 25 to 18. So in my mind, anything under 18 students—in many researchers’ minds—is still considered small.” Dillon said the district would use cost savings from reducing sections to fund a literacy coach who would assist with implementing a new English Language Arts curriculum.
For W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School, Dillon plans to reduce paraprofessional staffing by 1.0 FTE (full-time equivalent), and 6.0 FTE at Monument Mountain Regional High school;
Dillon is proposing to reinstate stipends for elementary and middle school personnel that were eliminated in the fiscal 2026 budget—$25,000 for each school building. In the fiscal 2026 budget, stipends were totally eliminated at the elementary school, and the middle school’s stipend was reduced to $2,000.
As part of the budget, Dillon is projecting that employee health insurance rates will increase by 8.75 percent ($352,235) and dental rates by eight percent. “We thought at one point the increases would be as high as 14 percent, and that’s what we originally budgeted for,” he said. “We know [the increases are] unsustainable. I have reached out to our elected officials. This is something that cuts across urban gateways, rural, suburban, every school. If the legislature was going to find something to partially subsidize this, it would be a great thing because they could meet the needs of everybody by doing it.”
“I have huge concerns about these increases,” School Committee Chair Steve Bannon told Dillon. “[It’s] not about the administration, and not about how this budget was constructed. But it’s the path that we are going down. You use the word ‘unsustainable’ about insurance, but I think our budgets are unsustainable, and a lot of it has to do with things that are out of our control.”
Bannon, who is also the chair of the Great Barrington Selectboard, added, “We want our students to get the best education, but the tax bills continue to go up.”
“So much of it is out of our control,” School Committee member Andrew Potter said. “I do feel the need to stand firm at a certain point [in] trusting our administration in terms of what they need to educate. In a subcommittee, we heard a discussion of the proposed literacy coach, and I was completely convinced. I would stand hard [for instating] that position. There are other places where, at a certain point, you can’t get blood from this job. This budget sort of feels like we’re basically at that point.”
A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for Thursday, February 26, at 6 p.m.
The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom and in person at the W. E. B. Du Bois Regional Middle School cafeteria.
