GREENFIELD, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — Wednesday’s City Council meeting brought impassioned discussion around the Greenfield schools’ budget with one School Committee member, Melodie Goodwin, speaking during public comment on the state of the committee saying she has “no confidence” in the school committee’s proposed budget and has witnessed “bullying” and “harassment” in the committee.
The Mayor’s budget for the city will not be released until April 1st, so the exact difference between the proposed school budget and the Mayor’s budget is not yet known but it is likely the schools will not receive the nearly $2 million increase they requested.
The nature of communication between the School Committee, Superintendent, Mayor’s Office, and City Council during budget season was also discussed in hopes of improving the process in the future.
During her updates to the Council, Superintendent Karin Patenaude expressed feeling left out of some decisions being made by council, in particular around the redistricting discussion and said she hopes the Council will include her as these topics come to their table.
Later in the meeting, Mayor Ginny Desorhger said she meets with the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent every two weeks to keep each other up to date and that she had sent an email in November of last year to all department heads ahead of the budget season saying their “budgets should reflect level service budget, this request is due to longterm debt costs related to recent construction projects and the fact that the [city] is at its levy limit.”