Schools Add Fundraising To Mix For High School Track Project

In an effort to advance a $4.7 million project to reorient and replace the High School athletic track and add a synthetic turf field within it, the Regional School Committee this week heard a proposal that added fundraising and private grants to the financing mix, to alleviate the financial impact on the four towns. 

The proposal presented by Schools Finance Director Doug Slaughter included $1.2 million from Community Preservation Act funds, $1 million from private fundraising donations, $1 million from grants (including American Rescue Plan Act funds), and the remaining $1.5 million to be apportioned across the four towns out of local taxation. For Amherst, the portion was estimated at 79% of the total cost. The amount to come out of the capital budget, which is directly sourced from local property taxes, was estimated at $1,184,850, to be repaid over a 20-year period with the first year debt repayment in fiscal year 2024 estimated at $128,043.

Committee member Jennifer Shiao, who previously served on the board of the Amherst Education Foundation (AEF), shared that AEF would typically raise around $30,000 per year. “You’re trying to raise 30 times that,” Shiao said. “There are organizations with a full-time person dedicated to fundraising who don’t raise a million dollars.”

Assistant Town Manager, Dave Ziomek said they had reached out to at least two professional fundraisers and had received “relatively positive feedback.”

The million-dollar donation target did not concern Allison McDonald who said that when people are passionate, they can give beyond what is expected. McDonald gave the example of the North Amherst Library where a single anonymous donor gifted well over a million dollars to renovate and expand the historic library.

Irv Rhodes, however, cautioned that he did not think it possible to raise a million dollars in one fiscal year. “I don’t want to bring before the Town of Amherst something that I know we can’t afford,” Rhodes said. “Nor would I want to force the other towns into making a decision on something they have told us they cannot afford.”

While the committee members expressed support for improving the track and field, and recognized the urgency, concerns remained around the cost. The School Committee would need to authorize borrowing the full amount to get the project in place, Slaughter said, and any funds received from other sources would reduce the amount that would actually be borrowed out of local taxation.

Pelham representative, Margaret Stancer, and McDonald didn’t want to delay the project for lack of clarity on funding. Peter Demling of Amherst also felt comfortable moving forward, as long as they reached out to the member towns to gauge the level of support, and included wording in the approval vote that reassured towns of the school committee’s commitment to “executing this level of assessment.” Ziomek and Slaughter will research the fundraising possibilities further and will bring the proposal back for a vote on March 15.