ATHOL – It took two votes, but the Athol Royalston Regional School Committee approved an $32.1 million FY25 general budget for the district at its meeting on Monday, April 22.

The final vote came after more than two hours of public comment and committee debate, most of it around a proposal to eliminate the position of interventionist at Athol Community Elementary School (ACES) and use the salary for that job to pay for a dean of students, who would split their time between ACES and Royalston Community School (RCS). There was an alternative proposal to simply eliminate the dean of students position at RCS. There is also a dean of students at ACES.

Parent Alyssa Magoffin lobbied the committee to maintain a full-time dean at RCS. She argued that reducing the position to being part-time would be unfair to students, staff and families. Magoffin said this role should be focused on a single school. The current dean, she said, had allowed teachers to remain focused on education while they dealt with discipline and other issues.

“We, the staff members of RCS,” Administrative Assistant Stephanie Kapise told the committee, “have recently been made aware of the proposal to eliminate the position of dean of students at Royalston Community School. We implore you to reconsider this decision as it will have a major impact on the student body, community, and stakeholders.

“If it is equitable for every student in the ARRSD district to have access to the same supports, should it not be a requirement that students at Royalston Community School receive the same consideration? How many times have we been told the needs of students come first?”

Kapise went on to say that the addition of a dean at RCS in January of this year has led to an increase in family interaction.

“There’s also been a decrease in bullying incidents, classroom disruption, and classroom evacuations,” Kapise said. “And the staff feel more supported when the dean’s position is filled.”

Athol Teachers Association President Kerry Conway said while there are times when cuts must be considered, “it is more important that (the committee) consider the mission and vision of the district when making those decisions. The perception in this district right now is that we have strayed away from a common vision centered around social/emotional learning and academic instruction.”

Conway suggested reductions in some administrative positions should be considered before cuts are made in instructional support.

“The district is currently spending around $200,000 to staff and run a parent center,” said Conway. “That certainly provides a support to families but is also a duplication of efforts of many of the organizations within the community. Athol has extensive low-income resources in the community; is there a critical need to duplicate all of those over resources for academic instruction?”

School Committee member Lee Chauvette, returning to the panel after a year’s absence, took issue with funding being cut for the interventionist at ACES.

“What would the DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) say and think of this district,” Chauvette queried, “if we were to cut an interventionist – or those types of positions – in a school that’s struggling? ACES is a school that is currently under-performing and still struggling, and these types of positions are going away.”

Chauvette added that a review of the budget, which included each line item, should have been done by the committee at an earlier meeting, not at Monday’s public hearing. He said he and two new members of the committee – Bobbi Newman and Frank Visco – had only seen the budget summary provided Monday night, not a detailed spending proposal.

“If you still want to look at the dean, that’s fine,” Chauvette said, “but to restore the interventionist, I would take $100,000 out of employee medical expenses because I know that’s always budgeted higher than what the bills are. I know that for a fact.

“I don’t know if anybody will move to reinstate the interventionist position or whether we’re going to go to a vote without trying. I am probably, for the first time in my lifetime, going to vote down a budget of the Athol Royalston Regional School District, because it can’t be moved to save positions that we need.”

Other committee members agreed with Chauvette, and an initial motion to approve the budget as presented was defeated, with five of the nine members present voting against it.

That put the committee in the position of having to vote no later than Tuesday, April 23, due to the requirement that it be completed no less than 45 days before the Athol and Royalston town meetings. Royalston’s is set for Saturday, June 1, while Athol’s will take place on Monday, June 3.

However, interim district Business Manager Dan Deedy offered possible sources of funding for the position of interventionist at ACES, while also including the position of dean for ACES and RCS. A motion was then made to approve the budget as presented, with the stipulation that funding be taken from the district’s School Choice account to pay for an interventionist at ACES. It is unknown at this time what will be done with the dean’s position at RCS.

The motion was approved unanimously. The $32.1 million budget includes a minimum contribution from Athol of just over $4 million and approximately $677,000 from Royalston.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.