Opting to move forward with a budget larger than the one outlined by the district’s superintendent and business director, the Northampton School Committee approved a plan last week that avoids cutting positions, even as sources of funding dry up.
"I make a motion that we pass a level service budget of $42,805,908,” committee member Michael Stein said before a packed meeting room on Thursday, April 11, at the JFK Middle School.
The vote came as Northampton Public Schools, like multiple surrounding school districts and beyond, continue grappling with serious drops in funding, along with falling enrollment, and other factors that have brought a fiscal cliff into full view ahead of next fiscal year.
One of the larger culprits – the end of COVID-19 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, also known as “ESSER” funds.
According to a Superintendent's Preliminary Budget Review presentation back in December, ESSER funds have helped make up at least $800,000 of both the 2023 and ’24 budgets. The review also identified an estimated budget gap of $2,750,208 on the horizon.
During Thursday's meeting, Superintendent Portia Bonner laid out some of the various factors that have led to the deficit.
“The budget gap that we are experiencing has been years in the making and is a result of multiple factors,” Bonner said. “Overuse of school choice revenue beyond sustainable levels, increase in staffing from FY18 to 2024. The last union contract agreement increases salaries exceeding city revenue growth, reliance on ESSER funds for recurring expenses…"
To close the gap, the initial budget review suggested, among other cuts, a reduction in teachers, paraprofessionals, and clerical staff roles. The presentation suggested the equivalent of 24 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions be reduced.
A budget increase of 8 percent would still be needed for what was referred to as “the first view budget,” coming in at around $40.7 million.
To get to a city fiscal target of 4 percent, additional suggestions were made, including a salary freeze and what appeared to be more reductions to support staff and academic support teachers at elementary schools, as well as a counselor at Northampton High School.
The position slashes were the subject of a lengthy public comment section during the school committee meeting Thursday, with a number of residents, as well as students and NPS staff, speaking out against any kind of cuts.
“Actions speak louder than words and right now, the cuts that you all are proposing are going to harm the people who need the most help, the kids who need the most help - so live up to your values, vote for a level funding of services,” said Sasha Morsmith, who identified themselves as a paraeducator at Jackson Street Elementary School.
Before the $42.8 million budget was motioned for, Bonner called the budget featuring a 13 percent increase “untenable,” adding that it would technically amount to a 17 percent increase when excluding a one-time, $1.2 million allocation that was given last year to address a previous budget gap.
As Stein introduced it for a vote, the committee member said they heard the outcries of students and residents and claimed NPS has been underfunded, while adding that the larger budget proposal was not radical, but a way of keeping what is currently being offered in the district.
And when it comes time for the city council to approach the budget, Stein says he looks forward to finding solutions to make the school funding happen.
“I am happy to participate, along with my colleagues from the budget and property subcommittee, in joint conversations with the city council committee on finance, to identify appropriate areas for cuts in other areas of the city budget, and the possibility of using reserve funds in creative ways,” he said.
The committee largely approved the measure, with one member voting no and Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra voting to abstain.
Sciarra thanked the community members who came out to make their opinions known, as well as the NPS students who ventured to city hall the day before to demonstrate over the suggested cuts.
However, repeating a point she said she brought up at a school budget meeting two years ago, Sciarra explained she could not support a plan where sustainability was an unknown, saying doing so would be irresponsible.
UPDATE
Since the airing of this story, the mayor’s office has provided the following statement regarding the school budget vote on Thursday:
"Unlike past years, the School Committee has indicated that they want to send to the Mayor a budget with spending levels that are aspirational, with the understanding that the Mayor, in conjunction with the City Council, has a legal obligation to ensure that the final budget is balanced.”
“The budget that the School Committee passed, while honorable in its aspirations, increases the largest expenditure of the general fund budget, that for the Northampton Public Schools, by 17 percent. This will leave an approximately $5 million deficit for which there is not enough in the Fiscal Stabilization Fund to cover that deficit for FY2025."
