Town Council Approves More Money for Schools but Not Enough to Cover Shortfall

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, April 7, 2025

This meeting was held in hybrid format and was recorded.

Present
Lynn Griesemer (President, District 2), Andy Steinberg, Mandi Jo Hanneke, Ellisha Walker (at large), Cathy Schoen and Freke Ette (District 1), George Ryan and Hala Lord (District 3), Jennifer Taub and Pam Rooney (District 4), Bob Hegner and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5). 

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager) and Athena O’Keeffe (Council Clerk)

Budget Up to 5%  for Elementary Schools and 4.81% for Regional Schools
It took more than four hours of circuitous discussion and confusing motions for the council to arrive at a 10-3 vote to direct the Town Manager to raise the FY26 budget allocation for the elementary schools to 5% and the regional school allocation to 4.81% over FY2025 levels. (George Ryan, Mandi Jo Hanneke, and Pat DeAngelis voted against the motion). These increases are above the 4% across the board increases recommended by the Town Manager for all four areas of the budget: regional schools, elementary schools, municipal services, and libraries. In actual dollars the regional school increase is $152,000 and the elementary school increase is approximately $450,000 more than the 4% increase. These increases will need to be compensated for by decreasing other parts of the budget.

The Regional School Committee’s (RSC) budget is based on the statutory method of calculating what each town contributes, which is derived from a five-year rolling average of enrollment for each town. Using this method to generate the FY26 budget will require significant budget increases from the other three towns in the region: 7% for Shutesbury, 13% for Leverett, and 22% for Pelham. The Town Council previously rejected an assessment method that raised each town’s contribution by 6.5%. Only three of the four towns must approve the assessment if  the statutory method is used, but all four towns would need to approve an assessment using some alternate method.

The Amherst Elementary School Committee (ESC) voted for a 6% increase over FY2025. The council did not entertain this level of increase, instead recommending an increase of up to 5%.

Funding the regional schools and elementary schools at these levels will result in substantial loss of positions compared to this year according to the school budgets. 

Although Town Manager Paul Bockelman has said he felt he could meet the 4.81% for the regional schools, he was less confident about the 5% increase for the elementary schools. He said, “I don’t know how we get there.”  In his brief presentation on the budget, Bockelman emphasized that he must present the council with a balanced budget by May 1. Increases in the costs of health insurance, pensions, collective bargaining agreements, and inflation have put pressure on all phases of the budget.  Bockelman estimated that the municipal budget is also facing a shortfall of $350,000 even with a 4% increase and even before allotting extra money for the schools.

He listed some options to meet the budget shortfall: freezing or eliminating vacant positions, reorganizing departments, reducing town services and capital spending, rolling back or delaying initiatives, passing a proposition 2 ½ override, or laying off existing staff. He asked for input from councilors on how to proceed toward a balanced budget. As of now, the positions of Planning Director and Director of Senior Services are vacant, and Finance Director Melissa Zawadzki is leaving on July 1. Bockelman said the Town Clerk position will also be unfilled. There are also three vacancies on CRESS, three in the fire department, and one in the police department.

Councilors Weigh Reducing Amount for Capital Stabilization Fund
Ana Devlin Gauthier’s memo to the Finance Committee and Finance Committee Chair Cathy Schoen recommended reducing the amount of the budget devoted to the capital budget from 10.5% to 10%, which would produce a savings of about $500,000. Ellisha Walker and Hala Lord also supported a proposal to take the needed money from the reserves. Lord said, “It feels harmful and painful to me to have $28 million in reserves and to cut or freeze positions. I would hope there was a way that we could take the half million dollars from our reserves in this moment and then be strategic about other ways to fundraise.” She added, “The idea of reserves feels like a great privilege.”

Walker agreed, asking if there was a way to use the reserves as a one time use until there is time for the schools and town to develop a long-term fiscal plan. She pointed out that both the School Superintendent and CRESS Director are new to their positions, “we need to set ourselves up for long-term success, and I think to do that, we need not continuously cut before we make a plan.”

Jennifer Taub pointed out that in recent years the town has had an annual surplus of several million dollars. She stated, ”We put more aside in reserves than other towns. How did we come to that decision?”

Bob Hegner cautioned against using reserves. He stated, “Let’s say we go into reserves for a million dollars and we increase our budget by a million dollars, that’s a million dollars we have to find next year. It’s going to be a worse situation than we’re in right now.” Ryan agreed saying, We cannot abandon our long-range fiscal plans. That would be very, very, very foolish.”

Bockelman and Zawadzki also spoke strongly against using reserves or reducing the amount put into the stabilization fund. Bockelman said, “There is great demand for repairing roads and investing in buildings that are leaking. That’s where the capital money goes, and letting our infrastructure crumble is not an acceptable solution. Long term stability of our organization requires us to be able to support ourselves with the money that’s coming in from year to year. Pulling from reserves is not a sustainable option and it makes it worse down the road. The capital reserve was established for a very specific purpose which was a new fire station and a new DPW. Those are two facilities that really need to be replaced.” Zawadzki added, “The capital stabilization is part of a long-term strategy that has been in place for a long time, and to differ from that sort of defeats the purpose. We made a plan for ourselves, and we need not abandon that for this moment.”

Andy Steinberg noted the uncertainty regarding federal money that the state receives to support services including Medicaid, transportation, and the schools, as well as grants to libraries and other projects. All this is potentially at risk. Bockelman added, “I think 4% is not an unreasonable increase in this day and age. If I had a department, I would say ‘I expect you to manage within that budget.’ I think that’s a reasonable thing to expect a manager to do and say. We don’t have unlimited funds, and the taxpayers don’t have unlimited wallets.”

Pat DeAngelis emphasized the need to replace the DPW building and the fire station, as well as to repair other town buildings. She said, “If we don’t step back as a town and take on the hard question of how we are going to finance the next five and 10 years, then we’re going to just be sitting her year after year. You’re going to be screaming at us, saying we don’t value education, and you’re going to be screaming at us for other things we’re going to cut. This is a game that we cannot afford to play any more in this town.”

Confusing Set of Motions Sends Message to Town Manager for More School Funding
After individual councilors spoke about whether the schools should get more than a 4% increase and, if so, where it should come from, Mandi Jo Hanneke made a motion to increase the regional school budget by 4.81%, the elementary school by 5%, the library by 4 %, the municipal departments by 3.5%, and the capital fund by not less than 10%. That motion was defeated by a 6-7 vote (Taub, Hanneke, Walker, Ette, Devlin Gauthier, and Lord voted yes), which left the current budget guidelines with the 4% across the board increases in effect. 

None of the councilors appeared happy with that outcome. George Ryan moved that the budget guidelines be referred to the Finance Committee, saying that is the normal course of things. That motion passed 7-6,(Devlin Gauthier, Schoen, Lord, Hanneke, Walker, and Taub voted no), but the Finance Committee next meets on April 24, six days before the budget must be submitted. 

Council President Lynn Griesemer voiced her frustration with the process. She said, “We need to stop trying to mess with the guidelines and stick with the conversation we had today and move on. Trying to mess with a bunch of guidelines when we don’t even have part of the answers doesn’t get anybody anywhere. The guidelines are someplace to start with. The budget is the next step.”

Discussion continued about whether the budget guidelines should be amended, but most councilors felt the need to give some direction to the Town Manager when he creates the budget. Pam Rooney made a simple motion to increase the regional school budget by 4.81% and the elementary school budget by 5%. That motion passed by a 10-3 vote. No mention was made of freezing positions or reducing the capital budget, which will be at the discretion of the Town Manager.

During the Month of May, the Finance Committee will meet frequently to review the Town Manager’s budget in order to make a recommendation to the full council. The budget must be approved by June 30.

Public Comment Urges Support for Schools and Caution on Jones Library Project
As at the March 24 council meeting, many members of the public spoke of the dire need for the schools to have funding above the 4% increase originally specified in the budget guidelines. School Committee member Deb Leonard said, “The FY 26 regional school budget contains a target reduction of $800,000, and we’ll have cuts of 12 full-time-equivalents (FTEs). In 2025, the reductions were $1.2 million, and had reductions of 13.5 FTEs. In 2024, the reductions were $1.157 million and had reductions of 17 FTEs. 2023 was a banner year—level services, no reductions. 2022 was $1.2 million in reductions and 14.4 FTE’s. 2021 was $800,000 reduction. There were additions in the FY2020 budget that amounted to 8.7 FTEs and an additional increment of $300,000. There’s been a hypothesis that people who advocate for the schools do so because they’re indifferent to the welfare of the other departments. What is easier to verify is whether other departments face these kinds of year over year reductions. I think this hypothesis that the equal percentage idea for departments is working is disproven.”

Vincent O’Connor, Amber Cano-Martin, Allegra Clark, Rich MacLean, Pat Ononabaku, and Angelica Bernal also voiced support for the schools.  Several suggested that some of the town’s reserves be used to make up the shortfall in the school budget. See also Michele Miller’s comment in this issue. 

Several other commenters warned of the risk to the town of embarking on the $46 million Jones Library expansion project based on bids submitted 6 months ago with so much of the current cost and state of the library fundraising being unknown.

Council Passes University Drive Overlay District
By a vote of 11-1 with one absent, the council passed the zoning amendment that would allow increased housing density along University Drive between Amity Street and Northampton Road. Hegner voted no out of concern for the long-term fate of the Big Y supermarket. DeAngelis countered that she was reassured by the fact that the supermarket had a 20-year lease. 

Community Preservation Act Grants and Consultant for Charter Review Committee Approved
The council unanimously approved the funds recommended by the Community Preservation Act committee for 11 projects, totaling $2.3 million. It also approved $15,000 to hire a consultant for the Charter Review committee. 

Library and Fiscal Task Force on the Agenda for the April 28 Meeting
Due to the Patriot’s Day Holiday, the next council meeting is scheduled for April 28. Because of the length of this meeting (4.5 hours), several topics were deferred to that meeting. The proposal for a Long-range Fiscal Impacts Task Force put forth by Devlin Gauthier, RSC Chair Sarabess Kenney, and ASC Chair Jennifer Shiao will be discussed on April 28. Devlin Gauthier also wanted an estimate of how much savings there will be when the new elementary school opens in the Fall of 2026, resulting in the town having just two elementary schools instead of three. 

Hegner asked for a detailed account of the financing for the Jones Library project and Hanneke wanted to discuss a repair option as an alternative for the larger demolition/expansion project. 

Library Construction Contract May Be Signed Soon
Taub asked Bockelman if it was possible that a construction contract for the library could be signed before the council next meets. He answered, “Yes,” at which point Taub raised the possibility that the bids from last fall might inaccurately reflect the current cost and that fundraising was still at least $7 million short. 

She was then criticized by Ryan who said, “The Town Manager is very aware of all the concerns and he is empowered to make the decision.”