SOUTH DEERFIELD — Following its presentation earlier this week, the Frontier Regional School District School Committee approved a $12.9 million fiscal year 2025 budget on Thursday evening.

The FY25 budget represents a 3.14%, or $395,037, increase over the current. The district is positioning itself for a level-service budget, while also introducing a full-time athletic director/physical education teacher, pursuing additional professional development for staff and supplying teacher stipends, according to Director of Business Administration Shelley Poreda.

Beyond the new budget requests, the largest driving force behind the budget increases are the annual increases for staff contracts, health insurance, transportation and other similar line items. Those general increases alone equate to approximately $330,000 of the total budget increase.

“Level-service does not translate to level funding and that’s really important for the public to hear. There’s always increased costs for staffing alone. … We’re also experiencing, as I think all of our towns are and all of us personally, are feeling the effects of inflation following Covid,” Poreda said. “We work hard to balance that increase, while also looking at our new needs.”

Overall, assessments to Conway, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately increased by 2.75%, or $257,141, for the four towns. Whately is seeing the greatest increase at 8.33%, or $90,934. School Committee members noted, as they have in previous years, one town often takes the brunt of the assessment increases.

Assessments are determined by the state’s required contributions — calculated by a complex formula using enrollment, town property values, resident income and other data — as well as capital projects, debt service and any other additional assessments needed to fund the budget, according to Poreda.

“You could have a millionaire or two move into your town and throw this whole thing off,” Superintendent Darius Modestow added, noting that Conway’s assessment was thrown off a few years ago due to a few high-earning residents moving in and the state’s required contributions increasing as a result.

Members of the School Committee urged members of the public to talk to their state legislators about rural school funding because the state minimum contribution formula can crush small towns’ budgets and the rural school aid line item is unable to cover huge increases for towns.

$100K capital assessment

While discussing assessments Tuesday evening, Deerfield Finance Committee Chair Julie Chalfant requested the district and School Committee take another look at the $100,000 capital assessment for the four towns, which would fund a new fire alarm panel, as Deerfield is in a difficult financial position due to millions of dollars in flood damage. An alternative funding stream might take the load off of Deerfield and other communities.

In the School Committee’s Thursday night meeting, several options were proposed, with the committee opting to instead use $100,000 of school funds — likely Excess & Deficiency or School Choice — to reduce the assessments. Poreda said she believes the district still has “enough cushion” to pay for the capital project, but she does recommend the district try to refill those reserves in the coming years.

“If you guys are comfortable that we can do this without giving Shelley a heart attack,” said longtime School Committee member William Smith, “I’m all for it.”

Modestow also said he recommended the committee go with that option because each town’s elementary school budget was hit with a sudden transportation cost increase, which will further strain town budgets.

“All the towns’ elementary schools are getting hit with transportation out of the blue,” Modestow said. “One way or another, the towns will have to cover that cost, so we’re recognizing that at the regional level.”

The School Committee unanimously voted to approve the revised assessments. The vote has no effect on the $12.9 million general fund amount, and the four towns will each consider the budget at Annual Town Meetings this spring.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.