Pelham considers how much school funding is appropriate

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on May 11, 2007

PELHAM - Saturday's Town Meeting voted to spend $2,271,348 on the elementary and regional schools, maintain the annual town caucus, endorse the creation of a community board to advise radio station WFCR and ask state and federal governments to regulate genetically engineered foods.

The meeting did not vote on the town's entire $3.3 million budget. That vote is scheduled for a special Town Meeting on June 13, when Pelham likely will have a clearer idea of how much aid it will receive from the state.

Voters spent by far the longest amount of time at the four-hour meeting discussing whether to approve the elementary and regional school budgets.

Cities and towns, statewide, are in an unusual position this year because the Legislature already has approved the part of its budget dedicated to spending on schools. Final approval of the state's total budget is still at least a month away.

Pelham, therefore, was in a position to approve a schools spending plan at this time with reasonable certainty that state government will live up to the funding commitment it has made, argued Michael Hussin, Pelham's School Committee chairman. By approving its elementary and regional school budgets, the town could give teachers and school administrators an idea of what to expect next year sooner rather than later, Hussin said.

Perhaps even more significantly, Pelham, in passing its share of the regional budget, also sealed the fate the regional schools budget as a whole, as crafted by district members Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury.

If three of the four district members approve a budget, the fourth member must approve it as well, under law. Leverett has already endorsed the regional spending plan, as did Shutesbury.

Amherst, which rejected a $2.5 million override on which the regional budget was predicated, will now have to find an additional $300,000 for its share.

Pelham Town Meeting voters also approved spending $43,513 on a four-wheel drive police cruiser, contingent on the passage of a ballot question seeking funds for the cruiser. The ballot question, however, failed by a vote of 92-47, so there will be no cruiser this year.

There will also be no $485,000 fire and rescue pumper, since that failed 75-64.