Letter: Town and Schools Must Collaborate to Preserve Quality Education in Amherst

The Regional School Budget in Amherst is staring down another 1.4 million dollar deficit for FY 26. This will necessitate cutting another 20 or more positions. Our schools are the pride of our town, attracting families from across the county who want to see their children get quality education in an accepting environment. But over the past 20 years, our schools have suffered cut after cut. Programs have been diminished, and families have moved away. We are continuing to see our public schools put on the back burner by our Town Council as we run out of ARPA (Amercan Rescue Plan) and ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds. Our schools are rapidly becoming less attractive and if we want the cycle of not prioritizing education to end, we must have a base adjustment for the school budget.

On Monday, June 24, Town Council denied the Regional School Committee’s request for an ongoing budget increase of 2% above the town’s final recommendation. That increase would have provided level funding for the coming year. This ongoing budget increase, also known as a base adjustment, would be a permanent intervention to the budget crisis which would ensure a 2% budget increase annually. Town Council did approve a one-time increase of $335,000 and sent a “letter of reprimand” to the Amherst Regional School Committee warning them to not exceed the town’s guidance in the future. The decisions of the Town Manager and Finance Committee to not allocate recurring funds, was approved by the Town Council, despite the Regional School Committee’s vote to include such funds in their recurring operating budget.  In the letter, the Town Council sent an advanced budget directive to the Regional School Committee stating that the town can likely only afford a 2.5% increase to the Regional Schools budget in FY26. In addition, the Amherst Finance Committee in its letter (which eight members of Town Council endorsed that night) stated that the 2% increase they approved this year will not be included in the base for FY2025 but instead is a one-time gift. This means that we are subtracting two percent from two and a half percent which will result in the Town’s portion of next year’s school budget roughly increasing by a measly 0.5% from this year to next. This suggests that next year, school leaders will face a deficit under which, they have repeatedly stated it will not be feasible to sustain the quality of the schools. The town has not been willing to come up with new solutions. 

Amherst teacher salaries are falling compared to neighboring towns in the midst of a regional and national teacher shortage. The School Committee asked for operating funds (funding that will recur year after year) to help keep up with inflation that is far above 2.5%, and to maintain regular salary increases for teachers and staff. 

Compare this action with our neighboring communities in Western Massachusetts: 

-In Northampton, an 8% school budget increase was adopted. 

-Belchertown and Northampton, with lower cost of living than Amherst, have starting teacher salaries between 7% and 10% above Amherst’s compensation packages for new hires. 

-Springfield, one of the poorest communities in the state, approved a recurring 6.7% increase in city funding for the schools

Those promoting austerity for the schools argue that Amherst school enrollments have decreased dramatically, necessitating cuts. What is missing from their analysis is that the cuts to teaching staff have been keeping pace with reductions in student numbers. We are also failing to recognize that as these cuts prevail, people will move and have moved to other school districts causing enrollment to further decline. Over the last twenty years, ARPS teaching staff was reduced by over 35%, which is very closely in line with the downward shift in enrollment. To imply that reductions have not been made proportionately to the drop in enrollment ignores decades of cuts and silences our valued educators who continue to tell us that they can not operate with even thinner staffing. 

There is a plethora of financial solutions that the Town can choose from to slow down or, ideally, stop, the ongoing budget crisis. Most potential solutions are under the purview of the Town Finance Committee. One of the most frustrating parts of this process is that the town is taking an extremely ungenerous approach to the Public Schools, Fire Department and Public Works Department, but spends without much scrutiny in some other areas. While education systems in other municipalities may improve, ours will decline if we continue to fund it in this way. Other town departments saw operating budget increases this year over 6%. With no malice toward any individual area, or their valued staff people, it is striking that none of the department increases below were made as one time gifts, nor did they receive letters demanding austerity next year. 

The town had guidelines specifying that municipal budget increases should not exceed 4% annually. To keep the municipal budget within the 4% guidelines, there was a 2.3% decrease in Fire Department spending, a 0.3% decrease in Highway Department spending, and the level funding of many other municipal divisions within town operations. While councilors and recent news articles have focused on decreasing school spending, other town departments such as the Police and Planning Departments got a free pass, with little criticism while increasing their spending much more dramatically than the schools. 

Another potential solution is the ongoing operating capital savings that could be accessed to increase the school budget. For example, the replacement schedule for town vehicles is as high as every three years. Each year, the vehicles that town taxpayers purchase are fully spec’ed out to include many expensive accessories (chrome bumpers, fender flares, black painted roof, driver’s memory foam, wireless charging, lane keep assist, lighting systems, radios, etc). Police sedans have now become large SUVs at a price tag of over $90,000, and Parking Enforcement vehicles are costing over $60,000. If a cheaper vehicle such as a Toyota Camry was purchased, this could save the Town over $62,000 per vehicle, per year. Similarly, replacing town vehicles every 15 years instead of every three years would save hundreds of thousands more. When the federal and state government grant vehicles as part of an allocation, they require base-equipped vehicles that sell at even less expensive rates. Could the town realize these types of annually repeating savings before cutting teachers and level funding critical Fire and Public Works Departments? 

Sandy Pooler, Amherst’s Former Interim Finance Director recently said: “You have to say no to things sometimes.” Isn’t it better that we say no to expensive cars than actual teachers? As a town, these are the types of discussion we need to have before gutting our schools. 

When we give the historically well-funded departments higher percentage increases than the schools (which have been cutting staff almost annually for 20 years) we are taking a rigid old guard approach. All to say that we need to consider all our town priorities side by side. What do we value? What do we stand for? Let’s use our tax dollars in alignment with that. In the dire budget situation that the schools face, while other town budgets add staff and purchase luxury items, and while we hold over 9.2 million dollars in free cash, we would hope Amherst’s Town Council would look across all town budgets for savings and not make the schools shoulder the burden alone.

Sunrise Amherst encourages the Town Council and School Committee to work together and look within and see how savings across all town/school budgets can work to support our key priorities.

Sunrise Amherst is a local hub of the National Sunrise Movement working towards climate justice, racial justice and economic justice in Amherst. Sunrise Amherst members directly affected by the recent school budget reductions have engaged in research and review to determine where town funds could be best spent to advance our priorities.