Gill-Montague School Committee Approves $23.6 Million Budget for Fiscal Year 2024

GILL -- March 14, 2023, Gill-Montague School Committee unanimously passes a $23.6 million budget for fiscal year 2024. The seven-member board approved the general fund spending plan of $23,595,806 at its March 14 meeting, with the budget incorporating $400,000 from excess-and-deficiency funds and projecting a 90 percent state transportation reimbursement rate. Business and Operations Director Joanne Tacy warned that health insurance costs are running tight, with Health New England, the district's most-enrolled carrier, up nearly 9 percent against a budgeted 5 percent increase; a vote on renegotiating GIC rates was pushed to the March 28 meeting. The committee spent the bulk of its session debating whether to restore bus service for elementary students within the current 1.5-mile walk zone, with Tacy noting that a fully unreimbursed bus costs roughly $76,000 and that a revived "double bus run" system, while potentially cheaper than a $160,000 full-service expansion, would require renegotiating teacher contracts. The committee also set a March 28 deadline to vote on the Sheffield Elementary School Statement of Interest, which must reach the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 14.