The Pittsfield Public School Committee met on Thursday, April 25th to approve and adopt the FY ’25 school budget. The budget, which Superintendent Joseph Curtis earlier stated that “it would be a difficult one” when announcing for the first time that many school positions would be cut due to a budget shortfall of $3.7 million.
School staff and members of the public voiced their messages during the open mic portion of the meeting, Eric Lamoureaux, president of the Pittsfield Educational Administrators Association or PEAA, spoke on behalf of the opposition to staff cuts saying that “those in the PEAA are expected to do more and more, but with less.”
Speaking to the Committee, Lamoureaux said “What is now occurring with these budget cuts to our unit, is asking us to do even more when we can’t physically do what is on our plates now…this simply is not sustainable. You have asked why highly trained administrators are leaving Pittsfield. It’s because many don’t feel supported and don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Alison Shepherd, a longtime member of the Pittsfield community with deep ties to the public school system underscored the necessity for solidarity within the district, having traversed through Egremont Elementary, Herberg Middle School, and Pittsfield High School herself, Shepherd emphasized the vital role played by instruction, accountability coordinators in maintaining educational standards. “Removing any IAC position will not only increase issues with compliance, but remove a positive adult from a student’s life and put that workload back in the hands of the UEP…It is nearly impossible for us to do what we are doing at this point and eliminating any position will further hinder the ability for administrators to assists classroom teachers.”
Committee member Sarah Hathaway acknowledged the difficulty of the budgetary process, expressing gratitude towards Superintendent Curtis and the engaged public. “There were times I felt like, do I have a fever? I just don’t feel really well, it was just so hard and and I’ve, you know, felt for the people who written to us and people who spoke this evening, people who’ve contacted us in other ways…I feel bad for those people who are not going to be rejoining us in the new school year. I hope they will find positions in some of the newly created minds, or that they can return to us in a subsequent year.”
Despite the challenges, Hathaway remarked that the revised budget was a step forward, citing Assistant Superintendent Benhke’s discovery of previously unaccounted low income students which injected $2.4 million into the budget through Chapter 70 funds. Benhke’s findings led to an amended FY ’25 school budget totaling $82.8 million, with $78 million earmarked from City appropriations and $2.4 million from Chapter 70 funds. In an unanimous decision, the School Committee approved the updated budget with cuts affecting 23 full time school employees.
