April Action Needed! 4/7, 4/28 and more

What: Town Council Meeting 

When:  Monday April 7th, 6:30 PM

Where/How: In person at Town Hall or via Zoom

And/or email your Town Councilors

What to ask: Change the budget guidelines to direct the Town Manager to include the amount requested by the schools in the FY26 budget and vote yes to the Regional Schools budget as passed by the School Committee. These budgets restore the most essential positions and still require deep cuts – they are a fraction of what our schools need and the Town can afford it. 

 

On Monday April 7th, Town Council will continue its discussion of Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier’s proposal to increase the percentage for the schools for FY26 by amending the budget guidelines. As far as the Elementary School budget goes, unless the Council amends the guidelines, the Town Manager can give the schools a lower budget amount than requested, and the Council can’t increase it. So, this is important. Please see the awesome attached graphic Geneva made to illustrate our current situation and where we go from here. 

 

Also on the agenda is the Regional Schools budget – it seems this budget really should go directly to the Town Council as they, and not the manager, are the “appropriating authority”.  It looks like they are scheduling a public hearing on the Regional Budget for Monday April 28th – so please save that date!

 

Many of us already showed up in person or via Zoom, but it appears that we just have to keep reminding them that we still care – so if you are able, please try to join Monday’s meeting in-person or via Zoom to make a comment and/or directly email your District Councilors (plus at large Councilors) before Monday. Find all the resources you need on the SOS Website. There is a public hearing about CPA funds at the beginning of the Council meeting, so public comment could start closer to 7-7:30, but please be alert as the Council President has been known to flip the agenda. 

 

Global Village Festival – Saturday 4/5 10am-5pm, ARMS – SOS will have a table at the Global Village Festival.  Please come by and say hi! We will have a handful of signs for sale and other materials you can take with you to make it easy to talk to neighbors about what’s happening with our schools budgets. 

 

Community Conversation on School Funding – Sunday April 13th, 2-4 pm at Crocker Farm – Join SOS and the League of Women Voters for a collaborative, interactive conversation about what we can do about school funding in Amherst – help figure out next steps for SOS, meet other community members who are thinking about these issues, and walk away with concrete actions you can take.  Flyer attached.