ATHOL – A review of the proposed budget for the Athol Royalston Regional School District on Wednesday shows that a few changes could have significant impacts.

ARRSD Business Manager Nancy Konisky presented the district’s proposed budget of just over $38 million for the next fiscal year to the Athol Royalston School Committee on April 16.

Of the total package, about $19.5 million goes to teaching, nearly $4 million to student services, $6.1 million accounts for fixed expenses, such as insurance and retirement, $4.6 million for out of district tuition and School Choice, with the remainder for administration, operations, and capital expenses.

“The key budget drivers for next year – number one is special education,” said Konisky. “Our transportation costs are extremely high – between foster care transportation and McKinney Vento Transportation – and services for our kiddos in special education just keeps rising. Speech and language, occupational therapy – we need additional paraprofessionals. All of that contributes to the additional costs we’re seeing in this year’s budget, and we added them in to next year’s budget.”

Konisky said salaries are another major driver of the budget.

“We added the elementary school dean at ACES (Athol Community Elementary School) and RCS (Royalston Community School),” she said. “Miscellaneous duties and stipends in summer school programs were added in. They weren’t put in the FY25 budget, but they were put in the FY26 budget.”

The district business manager noted that health insurance costs have jumped by nearly 20%. Starting in FY 26, union members will be paying 30% of their insurance premiums, with the district picking up 70%, a change from the current fiscal year, which had a split of 80% and 20%.

“Those two have been a significant hit for our employees,” Konisky added.

The district will suffer a significant loss next year due to the fact that the number of students from low-income families has dropped below 70%. As a result, the ARRSD will receive $956,000 less in state Student Opportunity Act funds in FY26.

“As Nancy just went through the various revenues we have and all of the expenses, we try to be as transparent as possible,” said Superintendent Matt Ehrenworth. “We show every cent that we have and all the revenue we have.”

Ken Duffy, chair of the Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee, said following the public hearing, “It looks like they’ve done a good job of trying to keep things under control and that’s big for numerous reasons.”

Duffy credited Ehrenworth and Town Manager Shaun Suhoski for staying in regular contact regarding the finances of the school district and the town.

“Even though the School Committee and, in our case, the Finance Committee haven’t really met yet, there has been a lot of conversation and communication between the leadership of the district and the leadership of the town,” Duffy said. “So, I think (the district’s) numbers are in line with what Shaun is planning for the municipal side, and that’s a good thing.”

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