At the current rate, the Ashland School District will be in the hole by over $1 million at the end of this fiscal year on June 30. They also need to raise almost $2.8 million in cash to cover expenses through next October. The district serves about 2,600 students in grades K-12 and has seen both declining enrollment and increased staffing, among other factors contributing to the deficit.
On Thursday night, about 75 parents gathered in Helman Elementary School to discuss a variety of potential solutions, including cutting the number of school days, laying off staff, closing schools, reducing courses and eliminating field trips, among others.
New superintendent Joseph Hattrick said no one person is to blame for the district's current financial woes, and he'd rather focus on fixing systems than pointing fingers.
For example, he said when he started, the district had 160 credit cards for between 350-400 employees. He said he immediately froze every credit card and has also implemented a spending freeze for the district.
Parent Gabriel Howe said his family has considered leaving the district, seeking "the academic excellence and rigor that brought us here that I sense over the last 5, 6, 7 years has really been sacrificed."
Ashland School District is not alone in its financial struggles. Many districts throughout the state are facing similar budget deficits. However, Ashland chose to spend its federal COVID relief money on over 70 new full-time staff, meaning that fund balance was in the red by almost $800,000 at the beginning of this fiscal year.
That hiring decision has caught up with the district, as it spends about 85% of its general fund expenses on salaries and benefits. The employee attrition school officials expected has not occurred, and meanwhile enrollment has declined so that the district currently has about 300 fewer students than it did in 2017.
The district needs to immediately reduce expenses 鈥� ideally by about $2.2 million to have a financial cushion, Hattrick said 鈥� and figure out how to gather enough cash to make it to November 2025.
No final decisions have been made yet. On December 12, Hattrick will present ideas to the School Board, who will choose a path forward.
On Thursday night, Hattrick 鈥� who has only been on the job since July 鈥� expressed optimism that the district will be able to successfully address the crisis.
"It鈥檚 what I signed up for. I mean, I have had success with dealing with this, not to this extent, but I鈥檓 confident that as a community we can solve it together," he said. "It's just going to take time and patience. The biggest challenge is no decision, no decision, is going to please everybody."
