Staffing Cuts Loom Large in FY26 Regional School Budget

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Regional School Committee, January 14,  2025.

The meeting was held in the library of Amherst Regional High School and was simulcast on Amherst Media Channel 15,  The recording can be viewed here.

Budget Shortfall Likely to Result in Loss of Positions

Much of the meeting was dedicated to FY26 Four Towns Meeting follow up. Assistant Finance Director Shannon Bernaccia provided a presentation that included refined budget projections and possible funding formulas between the four towns, with their respective anticipated deficits. The Modified Statutory Method for allocating assessments across the four towns provided the least amount of deficit, but still leaves a shortfall of $1,016,000 and the loss of 19 positions between the Middle School and the High School (and five positions in the Central Office). The higher end of the deficit would be $1.4 million using an assessment calculation known as the “Hybrid Model”, which would require approval from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) prior to the towns’ voting and would result in the loss of 24 staff positions, at least 14 of which would be student-facing.

Committee member Jennifer Shiao (Amherst)  stated that “we should push Amherst” to accept a 4% increase to the school budget, instead of the 3% currently posited in the hybrid model. 

Sarah Marshall (Amherst) asked that Bernaccia run the numbers for the modified statutory method scenario in which Amherst would contribute the 3% increase, since she believes that is all the town will commit to, and those are the numbers that the Town Council will want to see.

Other school committee members agreed with Shiao on the need to push Amherst for a greater commitment.

“when you generate these kinds of surpluses year after year it’s very hard to understand why the schools get cut year after year after year… “ – Deb Leonard, Regional School Committee Member (Amherst)

Deb Leonard (Amherst) said, “I am really tired already of the bulk of the discussion at these Four Towns being who pays what part of the pie…it just seems like we’re fighting over the check, not talking about what our schools need to be functional.” 

She noted the multimillion dollar budget surpluses that three of the four towns had this year, saying “when you generate these kinds of surpluses year after year it’s very hard to understand why the schools get cut year after year after year… My plan is to push the town of Amherst.”

Bridget Hynes (Amherst) added, “I’m elected by the voters of Amherst. Of all my constituents, nobody has come to me and said please cut the schools year after year a million and a half dollars;  I’m not hearing that at all.” She added that the public was likely not paying attention now to the budget because budget hearings won’t happen until April, and voiced concern about “making a deal in the backrooms of the Four Towns meeting” before the public has a chance to engage. She also asked that a slide be created in the presentation that lays out the cost of fully funding the schools with no cuts.

While no decisions were made at this meeting regarding the budget presentation, the Regional School Committee (RSC) agreed to revisit the conversation at their next meeting. The next Four Towns meeting will be held in early February.

Read More: Amherst Regional School Board Warned That Schools Face 2026 Deficit, Job Cuts (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Contract with Custodial and Maintenance Employees Approved
The RSC meeting began with an executive session to discuss strategy with regards to bargaining with AFSCME (The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the union that represents the district’s custodial and maintenance staff. When the committee returned, Chair Sarahbess Kenney (Pelham) announced some of the highlights of the new contract, including “some clarifying language about FMLA  (the Family Medical and Leave Act) and sick bank, an increase of shift differential of 50 cents, some new grades added, and some increased longevity payments.” She also said that cost of living increases (COLA) were 2.5% for FY25 and 3% for FY26 and FY27. The committee voted to approve the contract, with the only no vote coming from committee member Irv Rhodes (Amherst), who said he did not have enough information on how much the contract would cost and said that the committee’s attitude was just, “Oh well, we can find the money somewhere.”

Superintendent Details Recent Data Breach
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) gave her superintendent’s report. After sharing some classroom and program highlights from across the district, she gave the committee an update on the recent nationwide Power School data breach (Power School is software used by the district to store student data, including grades, attendance, and schedules.)  According to Dr. Xi, the data compromised included “students names, addresses, their dates of birth, state IDs, medical alerts for students in grades 7/8, login credentials, parent and guardian names, and some staff work email addresses and their credentials.” While she said that the district does not store social security numbers, she mentioned that there were 12 social security numbers that seemed to have been revealed in the system breach. The community was notified of the breach by email, and Power School is now up and running again after having paid a ransom to the hackers to recover the stolen data. All users have been asked to change their passwords. The district is now working with its lawyers and Power School to establish credit monitoring for those impacted by the breach.

Athletics Fund Over-spent by $100,000
Another update by the Superintendent that provoked considerable discussion by the committee was the funding of the Athletics Department. According to Dr. Xi and Bernaccia, the athletics program is funded by a revolving fund and has, at the moment,  over-spent its budget by about $100,000; that amount will likely increase to $175,000 by the end of the fiscal year. Dr. Xi cited the fact that many students have their athletic fees waived due to hardship as accounting for a shortfall in revenue, but she also underscored the importance of equitable access to sports for students. 

“Athletics is part of the reason that gets our children to come to school to be in the academics and get them to shift and be successful, but we may not be able to sustain all of our athletics for the rest of this year, and that’s a very hard conversation,” she said.

Irv Rhodes said, “Athletics cannot be thought of as an afterthought, it’s a part of our school.” Rhodes advocated for athletics to be a part of the budget, and not supported through the revolving fund. Committee member Tilman Wolf (Leverett) disagreed, arguing that athletics were not central to the educational mission of the district. Sarah Marshall (Amherst) suggested raising athletic fees, which have remained static for five years, and potentially tiering them so that families with higher income could pay more, and those with economic hardship could pay less. She also suggested communicating with the Hurricanes Boosters about funding needs. William Sherr (Pelham) suggested that the region rent out its facilities to generate more revenue. All agreed to revisit this issue when Dr. Xi was able to give a more detailed presentation and asked for the amount of funding needed to bridge the gap.

Middle School Principal Search and Central Office Reorganization
Dr. Xi also noted that the Middle School principal search is underway, and forums to introduce the three finalists will be coming soon. The central office is being reorganized due to budget cuts, and Dr. Xi will soon be posting two new jobs, Director of Operations and Assistant Superintendent. She also briefly discussed the issue of communications in her office, noting that she sent an email to staff explaining the best ways to communicate with her, including when to use text vs. email and when there may be a delayed response. She added (without referring to specific situations or instances),

“My leadership style is very different…What I’ve realized is that I am often direct, and in a  situation where indirectness was the norm, my directness may be viewed as aggression. And so I think that it’s very hard when there’s also a stereotype when it comes to you being a person of color, a female of color, that we have to understand that if we want full acceptance we have to be willing to be open to the fact that there’s a different perspective. I took a lot of time to reflect on that and so as a leader, the one thing that I’m not going to bend on is the accountability of everyone to do their jobs to keep our children safe and to make this district run…it is somewhat becoming a little bit difficult to address.”

Protections for Undocumented Students
Hynes asked about the status of protected undocumented students  under the incoming federal administration, and Dr. Xi noted that there was already a district policy in place and that procedural guidelines would be forthcoming.