NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The McCann School Committee on Thursday approved a level-service "vanilla" budget for fiscal 2027.

 

The total spending plan for the Northern Berkshire Regional Vocational District is $13,218,090, up $564,753 or 4.46 percent over this year. The budget includes a second assistant principal, a special education teacher and interest on the building repair project. 

 

 "We frequently refer to our budget as a vanilla budget, and it sort of is this year, with some exceptions," said Finance Committee Chair Daniel Maloney. "The capital part of it is something different than the operating budget, but there will be an impact from that as well. But again, trying to be sensitive to what our communities can afford."

 

 Maloney and Superintendent of Schools James Brosnan stressed the need for an assistant principal, noting how lean the administrative staff was but how much the work has increased. 

 

"I've only got three people from my left that are responsible for this entire school," Brosnan told the School Committee. "There is no school in Massachusetts that only has a principal, assistant principal, director of students. Nothing, zero."

 

Maloney said it was a matter of "right-sizing" the organization that is running two schools. He pointed to the update from Prinicipal Justin Kratz that covered sports, enrollment, Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System testing, teacher retention and recruitment, student services, reporting to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the state's ongoing debate over graduation requirements. 

 

"You just see by the presentation tonight, by Justin, how much work goes into these things," Maloney said. "And even with our teaching staff, I often wonder how they have time to do their jobs when they've got all this data and all these things put together to feed the state, keep them happy. ...

 

"I know most of you are like me, that you have good intentions, you walk in on Monday morning, I'm going to do this. This also, there's five more things that drop on top of the pile."

 

Brosnan said the goal was to change the table of organization and add an assistant who would be focused on curriculum and learning. About 40 percent of the students are on individualized education or 504 plans, and the school also has English language learners. 

 

"All of these corrective action plans have to be done when I'm looking over and that's all they're doing is responding, gathering data, getting things ... what else is not taking place?" he said. "They're not evaluating teachers. That's part of the job. They are so overworked, it's embarrassing, and I appreciate everything that they've done."

 

Committee Bruce Sheply said he didn't disagree but they had to be cognizant of what's happening with financial situations in the regional district's nine towns. 

 

Brosnan said the $120,000 cost would not affect the budget, adding "I'm more than sensitive to our communities ... This should have been done 10 years ago. Five years ago. I'm going to take responsibility. I didn't do it sooner."

 

The budget also includes cost of living and step raises, another ELL teacher, and $157,778 in short-term interest on the accelerated repair project, which will be starting soon with the gym roof scheduled for April vacation. 

 

 

In other business, Kratz said the school will not have to use a lottery to fill its incoming class. 

 

"We are right around the 140 mark. We've had some students say thanks, but no thanks. But we've also had some students apply past the deadline, so we're just back filling," he said. 

 

However, he said the figure will be fluid right up to the beginning of the new school year, with a possible difference of five to 10 students. 

 

"We're looking to bring in sophomores over the summer, we're looking to be looking to bring in some juniors potentially, which we've never done before,"  the principal continued. "I envision it would be a pretty motivated student, a pretty driven student, to say, my junior year, I want to do this. I want to get involved in this program. So we're excited to see kind of how that plays out."

 

He said the school will be focusing on remediating students who are falling behind to close an achievement gap. The district is also looking to firm up its faculty recruitment and retainment efforts. It has two or three current vocational openings and five to six academic posts to fill. 

 

Kratz said that is still low compared to larger public school district but the school is expanding its outreach from local media to post its jobs on a statewide teacher platform. In response to questions about recruiting from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, he said McCann has strong connection with MCLA but a lot of the graduates aren't staying in Berkshires. 

 

Vocationally, he said, the statewide Career Technical Initiative has been trying to introduce professionals to the teaching field.

 

"That's something that they're doing in other locations, where they're doing like sort of a talent pipeline for the future," he said. "But get some industry professionals in here, teaching some night classes, and see what teaching is like."