June updates

• The budget for the Regional Schools has been approved by all four member towns. See the SOS post here for a refresher on that budget and what we know about positions lost/restored, etc…
• It seems as though the Amherst Finance Committee will recommend the 5% increase for the Elementary Schools, but will send a letter asking for acknowledgement that $269,704 of that is “one-time” money and won’t be included in the base for the increase calculation next year. More details regarding positions lost/restored available in our post here. 
• The full Town Council will take up the budget on Monday June 16th at 6:30pm, with a possible vote that night – this would be a good meeting to remind Town Council that we are still paying attention, still care about school funding, and are disturbed by the Town Council’s attempted overreach into areas that are the purview of School Leadership (more info at bottom of this email about how to advocate).
• The Finance Committee has open seats for community members – you can apply here. It would be great to have more balanced representation on this committee given the influence it has.
• All Town Council and School Committee seats are up for election in November!

 

The Finance Committee has been finalizing its report/recommendations to the Town Council on the FY26 Budget. In meetings on 5/27, 5/29 and 6/3, there were many instances of Finance Committee members overstepping their authority, getting involved in the minutiae of how to operate the school districts, and relying on inaccurate or cherry-picked information to come to conclusions about school spending. Here are some of the main takeaways and areas in which these discussions were problematic. 

• Initially, members of the Finance Committee wanted to hold hostage $269,704 for the Elementary Schools, and give them only a 4% increase within the budget itself, saving the additional 1% that will come from Free Cash until the School Leadership would acknowledge that the additional $269,704 was one-time money and detail exactly how they would spend it on non-recurring expenses. They sent a message to School Leadership with this request. 
• Amherst School Committee Chair Jennifer Shiao wrote a response, saying, in part, that the district needs the full amount to operate the schools and that it is outside the purview of the Town Council to question how the school district spends its funds. School Leadership has repeatedly indicated that it is too early to say whether there will be savings when the two Elementary school buildings are consolidated into one, in part because the district will still be operating a third school, in the form of the 6th grade. The planning work for all of this is underway and more cost information will be available soon. Finance Committee members nonetheless have continued to insist there will be savings, often citing unverified anecdotal information, and proposing solutions that are impractical or have been ruled out in the past. 
• In the end, the Finance Committee decided not to hold the $269,704 hostage, but instead to send a letter to the School Leadership from the entire Town Council again asking for acknowledgement that the $269,704 is one-time funds and will not be included in the base for next year’s increase calculation. 
• School spending was the target of many Finance Committee discussions, and members of the Finance Committee often relied on false, misleading or incomplete information to come to conclusions about school spending. For example, members created a chart that compares the per-pupil spending in the Amherst school districts to 27 other districts around the state in order to show that our costs are relatively high. These districts, though, have very little in common with Amherst’s schools, something made apparent when looking at demographic and other contextual information. Compared to most of the districts in the chart, Amherst and Amherst Pelham have a higher percentage of English Language Learners, low-income students and students who are considered high need. Our schools also have among the highest percentage of students with disabilities of any district in the chart, important to note because providing mandated and much needed special education services understandably drives up costs. Finance Committee members, though, declined to consider or include the contextual information, saying that it would make the chart difficult to read. One member of the Finance Committee, non-voting member Bernie Kubiak, went a step further and argued incorrectly that the percentage of students with disabilities in our schools is at or below the state average and therefore not relevant, when in fact our percentages are above state average in both districts, and double at least one of the districts included in the Finance Committee chart. 
• In debating language for the Finance Committee written report to Town Council, Councilor Andy Steinberg argued for removing a section that explained that the additional money for the Regional Schools was being taken from Capital and the additional money for the Elementary schools was coming from free cash. He prefered instead that the report convey the false narrative that the additional money for the schools was what was causing the Town Manager to freeze 6.4 positions in municipal departments. The Town Manager has said repeatedly that the school budget is not the cause of the freezing of municipal positions, and confirmed it again in response to Councilor Steinberg’s comments. 
• In yet another example of overreach, Councilor Bob Hegner said that he doesn’t like the idea of the 6th grade moving to ARMS and wants to reopen discussions regarding that plan, despite the fact that this decision is well outside the purview of the Town Council. In a subsequent meeting, this topic was revisited and the Finance Committee seemed to be planning to include a section about this in their letter to School Leadership, indicating that they would like to be involved in discussions. The Amherst Town Charter and Massachusetts General Law are very clear about responsibilities and do not grant Town Council a role in determining operational details of the schools.  
• Compared to their scrutiny and criticism of the school budgets, Finance Committee members seemed much less curious about other aspects of the municipal budget, and overall, saw much less detail regarding the finances of other departments than they did of the schools. No other department head was sent a seven page list of questions or second guessed during meetings. 
• The Finance Committee has concluded their review of the FY26 budget without ever having discussed the FY25 third quarter report which has been available for a month. They have also not discussed the FY24 Annual Audit, which appears to not yet be available in spite of the fact that the Town Charter indicates that this report must be provided to the Town Council by March 1st. 
• At this time, the Finance Committee’s most recent draft report from 6/3 has not yet been made publicly available despite the fact that it was discussed and edited in a meeting. 

 

On May 27th, at the School Committee Meeting, Dr. Xi presented her plan to convene a meeting of school leadership as well as representatives from each of the member towns of the Regional School District. The proposal states, “The purpose of this convening is to bring together key stakeholders from the towns of Amherst, Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury alongside School Committee members and district leadership to engage in a shared, transparent dialogue on the future of education funding across our three school districts.” Dr. Xi’s plan is to have the meeting facilitated by a neutral third party and to engage the support of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools which has expertise in this area. Indy article with more detail here. This is a positive step and something the Towns have been asking for, and it is important that School Leadership, and not Town Council, drive this process, especially in light of recent Finance Committee discussions. The meeting is tentatively set for June 18th, 5-7 pm and is a public meeting. 

 

 

At the Town Council Meeting on 6/2, Council President Lynn Griesemer appointed and the Town Council approved the following people to represent Amherst at the meeting Dr. Xi is organizing: Council President Lynn Griesemer, Council Vice President George Ryan, Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke, Councilor (and Chair of Finance Committee) Cathy Schoen, and the Town Manager Paul Bockelman. Councilors Jennifer Taub and Pam Rooney raised a question about whether Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier should be included in this group because of her work this spring to find common ground with school leadership, but Councilors like Pat D’Angelis argued that Councilor Gauthier is “biased.” Cathy Shoen argued that Councilor Devlin Gauthier should not be included as she was not part of the Finance Committee discussions with Dr. Xi, but it’s important to note that Councilor Gauthier had asked to be on the Finance Committee this term and Council President Lynn Griesemer opted not to appoint her. 

 

 

Members of the public should show up at the next Town Council meeting to speak on behalf of the schools. We should continue to remind Councilors that we are paying attention and that the schools are still of great concern to us. We will share more info on the meeting when it is available. Some points to consider: 

• While we are grateful for the funding for the schools, these budgets still represent cuts to staff and programs – this funding does not provide all that our students need. 
• School budgets as voted by School Committees are the culmination of considerable thoughtful deliberation among staff, building leadership, district leadership and School Committee members, people tasked with ensuring that the needs of our students are met. 
• The fact that the requests from the School Committees exceed the 4% Town Council guidance does not give the Town Council the right to exceed their authority by delving into operational details of running the school districts.
• It is not the purview of Town Council members to determine or decide how school funds should be spent or how the school district should operate its schools, or to withhold funding if their suggestions and ideas are not followed.
• It is not the purview of the Town Council to question whether the school district really needs the requested funding. The Town Council’s job is to trust the School Committee (their fellow elected officials) that these funds are needed, and then to decide whether and how the town can fund the request.