Staff cuts, health care savings put dent in Pine-Richland's budget deficit

Savings in health care and those expected from staff cuts are putting a dent in the deficit that the Pine-Richland School District is forecasting for the 2025-26 school year.

In addition to not replacing several departing employees, the school board also is being asked to consider increases in student activity and parking fees and football ticket prices, which while not generating a large amount of revenue are important, Superintendent Brian Miller said.

“We are facing challenges that we as a district have not faced in 15 years relative to how we operate,” he said.

The board is expected to vote on the district’s 2025-26 proposed final budget May 12. A final vote would follow in June.

In March, the district was showing a $2.72 million operating deficit in a draft of its $110 million 2025-26 budget.

An increase in health care premiums expected to be 9% came in at 5.7%, saving the district $354,000, Brian Glickman, human resources director, said in a presentation to the school board April 7.

The district’s budget was reduced to $109.77 million, with a $2.33 million deficit.

The draft does not include a tax increase. Pine-Richland is able to increase its tax rate by up to 4%, which if done would change it from 19.5867 mills to 20.3702 mills.

The recommended staffing reductions would save $702,000, which would further lower the deficit to about $1.63 million.

Attrition is not comfortable and has an impact, but is preferable to furloughs, Miller said.

“Staffing and budget are tightly aligned. The quality of our program and the impact on people and kids is very much a part of this conversation,” Miller said. “These are not easy or simple things to talk about, but it is critical that we talk about them.

“It isn’t just about the deficit that we face now. It is about projecting our operational deficit as we go forward, and the challenges we face right now in this moment are nothing compared to the challenges we are going to face a year from now and two years from now.”

The district is anticipating 13 faculty retirements or resignations, which Glickman said is higher than the typical average of eight.

Administrators are recommending not replacing a fourth grade teacher at Eden Hall Upper Elementary and a high school special education teacher.

At the high school, one English and one social studies teacher would be replaced with one dual-certified teacher. At Eden Hall, a band teacher would be replaced with a part-time teacher.

They are not recommending adding any faculty positions for the 2025-26 school year, other than enrollment-based shifts.

Among support staff, administrators are recommending not replacing four paraprofessional positions across the district and two full-time custodians. The custodian positions are vacant, Glickman said.

Staffing levels for all other support staff, including secretaries, library assistants, personal care assistants and maintenance technicians, would remain the same.

“The recommendation to reduce is not an easy one, it is not without discomfort, it is not without impact, but we believe given the totality of what we’re facing that it is taking the right decision at the right time in order to preserve the overall quality of the educational program in the district,” Miller said.

The fee changes would raise about $125,000, Miller said.

“We have most programs available and most of those teams compete at a high level,” Miller said, citing other activities available to students. “This helps to some degree support our ability to sustain those programs as we face difficult times.”

As proposed, the activity fee would increase from $100 to $150 per student and student parking passes would increase from $60 to $100.

Student football ticket prices would increase from $4 to $5, with reserved tickets rising from $8 to $12. For adults, tickets would increase from $6 to $8, with reserved tickets rising from $10 to $14.

Changes also are proposed for facility usage fees, which the district says would increase slightly for nonprofit organizations and more significantly for for-profit ones.

While Miller asked to know if a majority of the board supports the changes so the revenue could be built into the budget, members expressed varying opinions.

Board President Philip Morrissette said he would not to burden students by increasing the activity fee or football ticket prices. Member Ashley Fortier said she thought the student parking increase was reasonable. Leslie Miller said she thought the parking fee could be higher, as did Joe Cassidy, but Miller was concerned about the increase in the activity fee.

Marc Casciani said he could support all of the fees, preferring that those using a service be the ones paying for it.

Miller said the fees are commonly assessed in public schools and Pine-Richland’s are reasonable or low to comparable districts.

“We’re not in a position to be thinking about do we do something or not do something. The activities themselves could be cut,” he said. “It’s not a question of do we like it. It’s a question of if we value certain extracurricular activities, and we do, then preserving and sustaining them as long as we possibly can in the face of hard times is the most important thing.”