Chicopee schools considering employee furloughs as pandemic causes financial woes
Updated Dec 30, 2020;
CHICOPEE Concerned about staying afloat financially, the School Department has placed a freeze on all but essential spending and is considering furloughing some employees until the majority of students can return to the classroom.
The School Committee will also ask state legislators and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to base next year’s financial assistance on the district’s 2019 enrollment. A large number of families chose to homeschool or send their children to private schools in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The budget is hemorrhaging,” School Committee member Mary-Elizabeth Pniak-Costello said during a recent meeting where the school business manager shared some dire financial predictions for the rest of this year and the next fiscal year, which begins in July.