School Budget Vote Leaves Art and Technology Teachers In Limbo

A $25.5 million elementary school budget for fiscal year 2023 which includes funding to restore art and technology teachers to full time was passed by the School Committee on March 29, but there is a catch: it exceeds the guidance from the Town by $52,800. 

Typically, all town departments try to keep within the advised budget guidance, so it is not clear what will happen now. The Town Manager has until May 1 to submit a budget to the Town Council that includes the elementary schools, Town, and library, and the Council then has until June 30 to take action on the budget. This means that the art and technology teachers may be in limbo until then, uncertain whether their positions will be made whole this fall. 

If the Town does approve this higher appropriation, then each of the three Amherst elementary schools – Fort River, Wildwood, and Crocker Farm — will have art and technology teachers five days per week in the fall instead of the current four days.

The unanimous School Committee vote came after more than an hour of debate that focused primarily on the use of additional Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) Covid-related monies to cover the $79,200 required to restore the six positions to full time. 

At a budget hearing on March 8, having confirmed Superintendent Michael Morris’ proposed budget did not restore the positions to full time, committee member Jennifer Shiao asked Morris and Finance Director Doug Slaughter to bring back a version of the budget that would do that. Morris replied, “essentially it’ll increase the use of ESSER funds, which again aren’t forever, by the amount of that budget cut. It’s a simple calculation and we can certainly bring that to the meeting on the 29th.”

Morris’ budget already proposed using $393,531 of ESSER to avoid reductions, as well as $628,686 of ESSER to support the level-services budget. (Separately, the School Committee had recently approved a regional school budget for the middle and high schools that relied on more than $800,000 of ESSER.)

Morris, however, cautioned against using more of these time-limited funds to restore the art and technology positions. “We have one more year of about $400,000, then the fiscal cliff comes,” he said. “I get fiscally concerned about the cliff.” 

Three of the four committee members — Peter Demling, Allison McDonald, and Ben Herrington, (Irv Rhodes was absent) — made comments indicating agreement and expressing discomfort with increasing the use of ESSER. 

For Shiao, on the other hand, it was a “no brainer” to use the ESSER funds if that’s what it took to add the positions back. “It’s a relatively small amount of money for a really large impact,” Shiao said, referencing some of the many public comments they had received from parents, students, and staff in support of restoring the art and technology positions.

Demling instead proposed approving a higher appropriation, effectively asking the Town for the additional funds rather than increasing the use of the schools’ ESSER. In an effort to reach a compromise, Shiao suggested ‘splitting the difference’ with half of the $79,200 from ESSER and half from an increased Town appropriation. Ultimately, the committee agreed to increase the use of ESSER for one third of the $79,200, and to ask the town for the remaining $52,800. A public hearing on the FY23 budget is scheduled for Monday, May 16.