Runey Hints at Possible D-R Budget Reductions

Dighton-Rehoboth School Superintendent Bill Runey said “tough decisions” will need to be made in preparing the FY’25 budget.

“As you know, we are experiencing something of a fiscal cliff from the standpoint that the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief ) funding that we have been relying on for the last few years is going away after this year,” Runey told the School Committee at their December 12 meeting.

Runey said the district has between $450,000 and $500,000 in salaries that are in ESSER and many of those are student services positions like behaviorists and adjustment counselors.

“We are committed to doing the very best we can to retain those positions,” Runey said. “It is certainly going to require us to tighten our belt in other areas. We have worked very hard over the course of the last year to procure grants for curriculum.”

Runey noted the collaboration with various unions in the past and vowed to “come up with the best budget that we possibly can.”