Roof passes Finance/Budget Projections Revised/Upcoming Meetings

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Roof passes Finance/Budget Projections Revised/Upcoming Meetings

ARMS Roof – At Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting, the Finance Committee unanimously recommended using $1.6 million in free cash for repairing the ARMS auditorium roof. This request now moves back to Town Council for a final vote on 3/9. Assuming it passes, this means that the ENTIRE roof will be fixed this summer! This is a major win and wouldn’t have happened without public advocacy or without the leadership of Cathy Schoen and school staff, especially the School Finance Director. 
 
It is important to note that the Town Manager continued to object to this spending, and at one point even said, “my job as Town Manager is to the taxpayers of Amherst, not to the Regional School District.” While technically true, the taxpayers of Amherst also have children IN the Regional Schools and Amherst IS responsible for approximately 85% of Regional School local funding. Unfortunately, we are going to have to keep reminding the Town Manager and some members of Town Council that ARMS and ARHS are OUR schools and WE care about them as a priority in Amherst. 
 
Amherst Financial FY27 Projections – The Amherst Finance Director presented an update to the Financial Projections yesterday. Due to increased revenue projections in some areas as well as the decrease in the health insurance escalation, Amherst is able to increase funding from a 3.5% increase to a 3.85% increase. The video of the Finance Committee is here. 
  • Perhaps more importantly, they are now able to build the 1% in free cash the elementary schools got last year into the base for this year’s calculations. That will result in an $378,260 increase for the elementary schools. 
  • The Region will also receive a 3.85% increase FROM AMHERST but the total for the Regional Schools will also depend on what the other three towns are willing to contribute. Because the Region’s budget is determined proportionally to enrollment, a shift upwards in the amount Amherst can provide will require an upward shift from the other towns as well. That conversation will continue at the Four Towns Meeting on Saturday. 
  • In the projections, you will see a 4.53% increase for the Town – that additional money is due to adding $200,000 to the town portion of the budget in order to fund two new firefighter positions as requested by the Town Council. This money is coming from the Ambulance Fund. 

Amherst Elementary School Budget – At the 2/24/26 Amherst School Committee meeting, the School Committee discussed the draft budget information presented by Dr. Xi and discussed budget guidelines they want Dr. Xi and her staff to use in refining the budget and making decisions about cuts. They will finalize those guidelines and share with Dr. Xi and the budget will be further revised. The recording is available here. 

 
Regional Schools Budget – The Budget Hearing that had been scheduled for 2/26 is rescheduled to Tuesday March 10th and will have Zoom access for remote public comment. The draft budget is here. It may be revised between now and March 10th based on the new guidance from the Town of Amherst as well as whatever discussion happens at Four Towns on Saturday. Will share the Zoom link once the meeting is posted. 
 
Four Towns Meeting – This meeting will take place on Saturday 3/14 at 9:00 AM in the ARMS Library (rescheduled from 2/28). Please attend if you can as  it is important to show leadership from the four towns that community members are paying attention and care about these conversations. It is totally fine to join even for just a portion of the meeting and come in and out as needed.