Houle to leave as principal of Overlook
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Overlook Middle School Principal Brenda Houle will be leaving the school at the end of the year after taking a job at Mapleshade Elementary School in East Longmeadow.

Houle moved to Overlook in 2006 after serving as assistant principal at Birchland Park Middle School in East Longmeadow.

"She has to be where she feels like she can make positive changes with in reasonable timeframes," said Ashburnham-Westminster Regional Superintendent of Schools Michael Zapantis.

Houle has more than 30 years of experience in education. Zapantis said there must have been an appeal to her to return to a district she had worked in for many years.

Houle did not return phones immediately for comment.

Houle's departure timeline gives the school district time to start thinking about her replacement. Zapantis said, within the next two weeks he will decide whether to search within the district for Houle's replacement or to look outside the district.

"I look internally first," he said.

One of the issues the future principal of Overlook is going to have to deal with is whether or not of the excess and deficiency budget to fund the Briggs feasibility study because the money belongs to the regional aspect of the district and the regional agreement said the elementary school property is the responsibility of the individual towns.

Selectmen stand by their decision last week to remove the $70,000 but said they are willing to listen to the School Committee's request to put the Briggs feasibility study on the ballot.

"On several occasions it was mentioned that the 2 ½ plus growth for this year may be in jeopardy, but the warnings were never heed," Carlisle said. "Clearly miscommunications occurred and we need to learn from this and move on. Let it be clear that 2 ½ plus growth is a contribution, not a given."

If the town's withdrawal of $70,000 had remained, then the district's funding shortfall would have increased to $154,185 because the district would not have been able to use Westminster's proportional share of that contribution.

An hour after the Selectmen's vote, the School Committee voted unanimously to certify a budget of $28,461,169, which is a lower figure then the committee certified in the middle of March. The shortfall for this budget based on the towns' current funding levels is $295,159 because the committee members voted to move $75,000 of their excess and deficiencies account to lower the override numbers.

The override for Ashburnham would be $174,565 and the override for Westminster would be $120,594.

The Ashburnham Selectmen now plan to use the $115,000, which the Legislature has promised in local aid, to fund parts of the town's budget including the paramedic/ firefighter, the cruiser, the move of the town offices back to Town Hall, and money for the town treasurer to go back and recoup back taxes.

The town is not funding a $50,000 reserve account for gas and heating oil, nor are they using the $160,000 that was once appropriated for portable classrooms at Briggs, but is no longer needed. Carlisle said he hopes to look at these two issues together in the fall.

In other business:

• The School Committee voted to move $225,000 from the E&D account to fund the capital budget, which includes repaving the driveway up to Overlook Middle School.