Update on School Budgets

 

First vote – The Town Council voted 7-6 against a motion to amend Ana Devlin Gauthier’s proposal to say that the FY26 Financial Guidelines should be changed to allocate a 4.81% increase to the Regional Schools (this is the amount of the budget as passed by the Regional School Committee) and up to a 5% increase to the Elementary Schools (the Amherst School Committee voted a 6% budget increase). Councilors who voted against were Lynn Griesemer, Pat D’Angelis, Bob Hegner, George Ryan, Cathy Schoen, Pam Rooney & Andy Steinberg. Councilors who voted for were Ana Devlin Gauthier, Ellisha Walker, Hala Lord, Jennifer Taub, Freke Ette, Mandi Jo Hanneke.

 

Second vote – The Town Council then voted 7-6 to refer Ana Devlin Gauthier’s original proposal to change the Financial Guidelines (allocating a higher amount to schools and reducing capital spending) to the Finance Committee. Ana Devlin Gauthier and Mandi Jo Hanneke argued that referring this to Finance was essentially killing it, and that instead the Council should decide. Councilors voting to refer it to the Finance Committee were Lynn Griesemer, Pat D’Angelis, Bob Hegner, George Ryan, Andy Steinberg, Freke Ette and Pam Rooney. Councilors voting against referring it to Finance were Mandi Jo Hanneke, Hala Lord, Cathy Schoen, Jennifer Taub, Ellisha Walker, and Ana Devlin Gauthier. 

 

Third vote – The Town Council then voted 11-3 on whether to recommend to the Town Manager that the target budget for the Regional Schools be a 4.81% increase and for the Elementary Schools, up to a 5% increase. Councilors voting for this motion were Lynn Griesemer, Hala Lord, Bob Hegner, Pam Rooney, Cathy Schoen, Andy Steinberg, Jennifer Taub, Ana Devlin Gauthier, Ellisha Walker, and Freke Ette. Councilors voting against were Mandi Jo Hanneke, George Ryan and Pat D’Angelis. Councilors Ana Devlin Gauthier and Mandi Jo Hanneke expressed confusion and frustration as to why Councilors would support this vote but also voted against amending the budget guidelines to essentially say this same thing. 

 

The Town Manager has to deliver a budget by May 1st – that budget will have numbers in it for an amount allocated to the Regional and Elementary Schools. It may or may not be the number voted on by the School Committees. In the meantime, the Finance Committee will probably be discussing the budgets, although their agenda is not yet posted. 

 

The Town Council did not really come to consensus about where the Town Manager should find the money if he does decide to allocate extra to the school districts. There were discussions about freezing positions, taking it out of reserves/free cash, lowering the amount of tax revenue set aside for capital needs, etc…The Town Manager presented some vague information about what a reduction in his budget would mean for staffing, but also said that he hadn’t determined what positions might be impacted. His estimate of positions lost seems entirely based on a calculation that at least one Councilor pointed out really didn’t make sense. It is not clear that a deficit on paper on the municipal side will translate to an actual deficit – for each of the last five years when the Town Manager has presented a balanced budget, he has ended the year with $1.4-1.5 million in unspent funds, due to unfilled positions, positions for which he receives grant money but keeps a placeholder position in his budget, and other reasons that are less clear due to a lack of detail in Amherst’s town budgets.