South Hadley is one of the latest Massachusetts towns to pass a tight budget at their town meeting – one that means another year of cuts for local schools. It’s also the latest to become a “welcoming community.”
Fitting special and annual town meeting votes into just over two hours, residents glided through the warrants before them, passing most all of the articles listed – including a $58 million budget.
According to Town Administrator Lisa Wong, it was a tough one to arrive at, given factors like intense spikes in health insurance costs.
“This is a particularly tough year. Even between January and February, health insurance increases - we heard were maybe 10-12 percent, and then they jumped to 18-20 percent, so, there's a lot of variability, but there's also some efforts to try to figure out how to reduce those costs,” Wong said.
According to a FY26 budget presentation given earlier in the year, health insurance costs involving the Hampshire County Health Insurance Trust, which the town is a part of, went up by at least $861,000.
Overall, the FY26 budget was $1.6 million larger than last year’s. Wong described how $1.4 million of that would go toward not just increasing insurance costs, but retirement costs as well (an increase of at least $405,000).
The budget does pack a $250,000 increase for South Hadley Public Schools – nowhere near what officials said was needed to avoid cutting the equivalent of 19.4 positions.
Speaking during the meeting carried by South Hadley Community Television, Jennifer Voyik, Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Business Operations, said $1.82 million was what was needed for a level-service budget – one that would keep positions and meet contract needs in the district.
“Obviously, with the proposed budget increase of $250,000, we had to find reductions somewhere and so, some of those were staffing, and then some of those were transportation, extracurricular supports, interventionists that have all been discussed at previous meetings,” Voyik said. “They weren't easy choices, they're not great choices, but choices that had to be made, based off of the budget situation we're in.”
Another school district dealing with ballooning insurance and transportation costs, education leaders say a voter-approved $1.2 million free cash transfer for “Special Education Transportation” could help mitigate cuts in the future.
SHPS Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said that following research, officials believe the district could save $600,000 annually by providing special education transportation in-house, rather than via a vendor – savings that could stymie any need for district cuts in future budgets.
The FY26 spending plan went on to be approved – as were a number of other funding-related articles, including $1.5 million for the town’s capital budget.
When the item came up, a few residents had questions about what some of it entailed, including Riley Hernandez, who asked if some spending - specifically a $140,000 request for replacing two police vehicles - was appropriate given the cuts the town was experiencing.
“If so many other departments, especially our public education, are facing such cuts so that teachers cannot get a cost of living adjustment, and that 19 positions are being cut, maybe we should reconsider this past practice of repurchasing police cars after they’ve reached 120,000 [miles]," Hernandez said.
Answering another resident’s question beforehand, South Hadley Police Chief Jennifer Gundersen noted police vehicles are replaced on a rotation, phasing out older automobiles that are traded in after 120,000 miles.
Other items passed Wednesday night included the creation of the town’s first historic district – one encompassing the town’s 1889 firehouse off N. Main Street and the Fred M Smith Memorial Green.
Also approved – language for establishing a “South Hadley Affordable Housing Trust Fund” for preserving and creating affordable housing in the town of over 17,000.
Technically, Town Administrator Wong said, the town voted 12 years ago to adopt the Massachusetts General Law regarding housing trust funds – but never created a bylaw.
Residents also approved the adoption of a Massachusetts General Law dealing with speed limits.
According to Assistant Town Administrator Chuck Romboletti, the adoption would allow South Hadley authorities to reduce unposted speed limits in thickly-settled residential and commercial business areas from 30 to 25 miles per hour
“Local data actually shows that vehicle crashes are trending upward in South Hadley, while in contrast, across the state, they’re on the decline,” said Romboletti, who also serves as Human Resources Director. “So, adoption of this, paired with other interventions, such as the recently-adopted traffic calming policy, is one proactive policy … that we believe might have a meaningful impact on addressing safety and reducing the number of or seriousness of crashes.”
Rounding out the night was a vote on an ordinance that would make South Hadley a “Welcoming Community” – a series of requirements geared toward preventing discrimination based on immigration status.
It would include requiring town employees to never inquire about someone’s status, said Adam Reid, who spoke on the item.
Reid noted the language draws directly from the ordinance passed in Springfield in 2018.
"I really think this ordinance helps to protect due process and just slow down the ways in which we are questioning, interrogating and detaining people who are not citizens of this country, especially at a time where we've seen federal agencies lead to an increasing number of wrongful detentions, deportations, etc.," Reid said. "So, we know this is happening, we want to slow that process down - this ordinance helps to do so."
"It does not prevent any of our town employees from cooperating or collaborating with federal entities - [the entities] just have to have a judicial warrant if they're making certain requests," the resident added. "It does not require anyone to go against any laws at the local, state or federal level and it does not explicitly stand the way of any support our town agencies would otherwise provide to people with immigration status."
The proposal was met with support and some concern from residents and town officials.
Agreeing that South Hadley should be a welcoming community, Police Chief Gundersen brought up how some of what’s in the ordinance can also be found in policies she and her department developed in 2019 – language emphasizing that the police are not immigration officers, she said.
The police chief also raised concerns over how, from what she could tell, the ordinance appeared to limit South Hadley PD’s ability to communicate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“What concerns me most is the language that prohibits our communication with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies," Gundersen said. "I feel super uncomfortable with that language and our staff being prohibited with sharing information with a law enforcement agency, federal or otherwise, serving the mission of their organization.”
One speaker raised the idea of federal funding potentially being affected, while another countered the federal government has already been pulling funding and grants from towns with little warning as is, regardless of community ordinances.
Capping off discussions before a vote in the affirmative, Select Board Member Andrea Miles said financial threats should hold no weight.
“In regard to the concern that our federal funding, in any capacity, might be affected by how we do or do not cooperate with federal agencies, I think … that's what makes this document really important, that we say that we are not willing to hand over our neighbors for money,” Miles said to applause.
