Amherst Residents Push Council for More School Funding

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Town Council, March 10, 2025, Part 2

This meeting was held in a 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)

Devlin Gauthier Continues Push for More School Funding
Amherst has long provided equal percentages of budget increases to municipal services, the Jones library, and the elementary and regional schools. Town Manager Paul Bockelman has maintained that this across-the-board system prevents pitting departments against each other. However last year, the town gave an extra $350,000 from ARPA funds to the regional schools to ease a severe budget shortfall, and in 2022, municipal services received additional money to create the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Community Responders for Equity, Safety (CRESS).

With the elementary and regional schools now facing a nearly $3 million shortfall for next year and loss of over 30 positions, Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) has called for a reevaluation of the budget guidelines that equally divide increases among the four divisions in town government. To this end, she asked that a revision of the budget guidelines be added to the Town Council agenda for the March 24 meeting. The budget guidelines were developed in the Finance Committee, so Finance Committee Chair Cathy Schoen (District 1) suggested that an increase in allocation to the schools be discussed at the March 18 Finance Committee meeting prior to coming before the full council.

Other Finance Committee members were less sanguine about revising the budget guidelines. Andy Steinberg (at large) said that the Town Manager “reported to us that, for the first time ever in his experience (and I think it’s bigger than that) the gap between the 4% [budget increase] and the amount that would be needed to level fund town services is half a million dollars, and it would mean substantial cuts need to be made somehow.” Devlin Gauthier pointed out at the Budget Coordinating Group meeting on March 5 that the schools have had to make cuts every year.

Steinberg emphasized that a shortfall in school funding was not only a problem for Amherst , but for many other towns, especially in Western Massachusetts. He said, “My sense from the Massachusetts Municipal Association [MMA] Fiscal Policy committee is that there is a systemic issue that is much greater. We’ve talked about some of those things in our local discussions about charter school funding and Chapter 70 distribution.”

Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) agreed. She said, “We are not the only town going through school budget issues. My MMA policy committee met last week, and I was shocked at how many people on the committee talked about their towns going through operating overrides this year. Nearly everyone said school funding is the issue.”

At the Finance Committee meeting of March 4, Devlin Gauthier pointed out the challenges faced by the schools are different from those faced by the other town departments. She said, “We know that the costs of education have increased in ways that [costs and services in] other departments simply have not,” she said. “The methods of delivery have become more expensive for education. For example, where schools used to purchase a textbook and continue to reuse it for multiple years, schools now must use online textbooks and programs which operate on a per year license basis, adding to the annual operating costs. Students now start needing Chromebooks in elementary school, a lot more expensive than pencils and papers. This issue we’re facing is not as simple as the schools not being able to spend and plan within their bounds. It is a matter of the work of education changing beyond just inflation and more rapidly than other areas of municipal services. I urge the Finance Committee to recommend amendments to the Town Council budget guidelines increasing the percentage going to the schools to at least 4.5%, if not 5. The bump to 4.5% would increase the amount going to the schools by about $458,000 from the initial 3.5%. Is it enough? No. Will there still be heartbreaking cuts? Yes, but we can also supplement budgets in other ways, which I hope you will consider in your discussion of free cash….The type of cuts proposed under the 3.5% increase will change educational delivery and services drastically, but we can strategically make a difference that stops the necessity of annual band-aid fixes and model how to cooperatively create municipal budgets that help both our current and future populations.”

Devlin Gauthier asked Council President Lynn Griesemer to bring up school funding when she meets with State Representative Mindy Domb and State Senator Jo Comerford later in the week.

Parents and Educators Plead to Protect Schools
Twelve members of the public spoke passionately for more school funding to maintain services for students, especially in special education. Jennifer Curiale stated, “Given the nature of what is happening in our country and in our schools, the old way business as usual no longer applies. There is an assault on education in this country. Please listen to the educational professionals when they tell you that the proposed budget cuts would harm our students. Additionally, I feel that I must speak out about some of the questionable statements I’ve heard expressed recently by some Town Council members about special education and its costs to our schools. Special education is a federally protected right. I’ve heard councilors and other officials talk about if somehow we can negotiate down IEPs [individual education plans] to save costs. Not only is this scapegoating an already marginalized group of students, these statements are just false. IEPs are not negotiated based on cost, they are created based on need. So please stop expecting the schools to solve this budget crisis on the backs of kids with disabilities. That is shameful.”

Angelica Bernal read a statement from the Special Education Parent Advisory Council steering committee. She stated, “In the past month we’ve watched as a new Trump administration has slashed critical social programs impacting millions of Americans, many of them the most vulnerable citizens. One target has been individuals with disabilities. This slashing of budgets is also happening here at local schools and these decisions are made by a Town Council that professes to represent progressive values. When the majority of cuts come at the expense of our special education programs, we have to ask about the message you are sending. We have pointed to arguments time and again about the real impact such cuts have on our kids. We say all this with passion, but we must now conclude that you’re not listening. We are not asking for luxuries, but necessities and urgencies. We are simply asking that our children have their legally mandated services.”

Ellen Jedry Guidera noted the attendance of over 100 residents at the school budget hearings. She decried the comments of town councilors who advocated for cutting costs by reducing special education services. “Many of the services that our special education students receive are legally mandated, and our students are entitled to these services, even when they’re expensive,” she said. “In the words of one special education professional in our school, ‘When you fund special education appropriately, everything else falls into place’ because special education isn’t off on its own. There are many special education students and general education students together. They benefit from each other.”

Rachel Hall agreed, “I don’t have a kid with an IEP and I can tell you that I see that special education helps all kids. My kids have benefited from a reading specialist, and my kid lost 40% of their class in third grade when there was not enough support in the classroom for kids who needed it. I want to tell my loved ones who are fleeing different states with not as great supports to move to Amherst—the schools are amazing. I’m begging you to please think about a different funding model and address all the concerns spoken here tonight.”

Jason Dorney stressed the importance of early education and said, “I just want to make sure that everybody understands how valuable this community thinks our schools are. Please allocate more funding to the schools and also please prepare some sort of plan so that we’re not constantly having a conversation like this year after year.”

Rebecca Watkins said she moved to Amherst three years ago for the public schools, but “once I experienced the lack of prioritization and funding for our schools, I knew I could not have other families move here.” 

Wai Je Coler, who grew up in Amherst, added, “The quality of our town is dependent on the quality of our education. I could tell you the fond memories of having German class, orchestra, chorale, the arts. We have to make ourselves different and invest in our children. Reconsider the budget.”

Instrumental music teachers Lincoln Smith and Ariel Templeton noted some of the benefits of arts programs, especially for those who have difficulties in traditional academic subjects. Smith said that cuts in special education services actually cost more because “if parents do not feel that their children’s services are being adequately provided [they] will sue the school district. Also, removing special programs like a reading specialist or cutting the autism program means that more kids will have to leave for outside district placements, and those are extremely expensive.” Templeton said, “The consistent instability in our district that we see year after year will lead Amherst teachers to seek out more stable employment opportunities. Parents will seek out more stable districts. We’re already seeing that we have so many kids leaving to school choice options. The town will lose; the schools will lose; but most of all, our students will lose.”

School occupational therapist Kristin Worgess said, “I have worked in public schools for over 22 years. I can tell you personally that the complex makeup of our student body has changed significantly. In the year 2000, one in 150 children were diagnosed with autism. Today, that number is one in 36. Moreover, our students are still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have demonstrated that these children have social communication deficits that impact their social interactions. Educators are here to tell you that the cuts as presented are putting our students at risk, and are forcing us to educate students in ways that we believe are unethical because we cannot give our children what we know they need to be successful.”

Meg Graham MacLean and nine-year old Leona also spoke for more school funding. Leona said, “I am lucky to have great teachers and special education teachers who help me read.” 

Thupten Dorney concluded that Steinberg’s statement at a District 2 meeting that “[the purpose of] equal budgets across Amherst departments was to prevent them from pitting themselves against each other, [but it] was not working when schools are suffering and experiencing cut after cut, while other departments have more than they need. We have to ask ourselves if the way budgets are constructed is equitable. I know that many of you care about education and our children, and I urge you to show your attentiveness and care through your compassionate action by modifying the budget in support of the schools.”

Many other residents have urged the council to increase funding for the schools via emails submitted to the town website.