CRITICAL ACTION - Show up for our schools Monday 3/24 @ 6pm
Monday’s Town Council Meeting is a critical time to show up for our schools! SOS Amherst is rallying on Monday at 6:00 pm at Town Hall – and heading to the Town Council meeting immediately after – Join us!
- Rally Monday March 24th @ 6pm in front of Town Hall – We will make noise and greet Town Councilors as they enter the building for the Town Council Meeting (see attached flyer)
- Town Council Meeting Monday March 24th @ 6:30pm – Join In Person if you can. If not, join via Zoom. Can’t do that? Send written comment.
Both the Amherst (Elementary) and the Regional (ARMS & ARHS) School Committees will be asking for more funds from the Town of Amherst than Amherst would like to allocate. The Regional School Committee has voted a budget that restores $470,958 and 7-8 positions (it still eliminates 11-12 positions and $812,126). The Amherst School Committee has not yet voted, but appears likely to vote a budget on March 26th that restores 5-7 positions and returns other positions from part to full time (it still eliminates over $600,000 and 10-12 positions). Several positions at the Elementary Schools have already been restored no matter what happens next, because Amherst revised guidance for percentage increases from 3.5% to 4% and health insurance increases are lower than originally projected (see page 4, Tier 1, of this document).
What is critical to know is that these budgets are NOT A DONE DEAL. Ultimately, the Town Manager determines the budget total with guidance from the Town Council, and currently (based on the 3/18/25 Finance Committee meeting) the Town Manager and members of the Finance Committee are strongly resisting this request for additional funds.
Monday’s Town Council Meeting is critical – if there is one day that you can show up to help, this is it! The Council will discuss and may vote on changes to the FY26 guidelines. If they do not vote a higher percentage increase for the schools, the Town Manager will submit a budget that cuts ALL of the proposed positions, and he is very resistant to making changes. Parents, educators and school leadership have been sounding the alarm on the school budgets since October – and most of our Town Councilors are choosing to ignore the reality of the situation. Thankfully, Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier has been listening and learning, and she has made a proposal to amend the guidelines to give more money to the schools. She is also proposing the creation of a Long Range Fiscal Impacts Task Force which would look at BOTH the school and municipal needs and spending. This is an uphill climb and we need to support her.
To that end, we will rally and speak up!
- Rally Monday March 24th @ 6pm in front of Town Hall – We will make noise and greet Town Councilors as they enter the building for the Town Council Meeting (see attached flyer). Kids, costumes and musical instruments encouraged!
- Town Council Meeting Monday March 24th @ 6:30pm – Join In Person if you can. If not, join via Zoom. Can’t do that? Send written comment before Monday.
WHAT ARE WE ASKING FOR?
- ***Most important***Tell your story – share how the proposed cuts will impact your family and our community.
- Ask Town Councilors to find a way to give the schools the money they need to restore the most essential positions at risk of being eliminated.
- Ask that they listen to their constituents and school leadership, who have been raising the alarm for months – it is not too late to make this change.
- Remind them that what the schools are asking for is a fraction of what they actually need, and many positions will be cut regardless – this is already a compromise.
- Tell them that our schools are in crisis in a way that other areas of town are not. It’s time for an end to business as usual and instead for a focus on equity.
WHY ARE WE ASKING FOR THIS?
Our Schools are in Crisis
- Our schools have faced cuts year after year and are at a breaking point.
- Our schools are struggling because of inequitable funding formulas and insufficient state funding – and not through any fault of their own.
- Attempting to simultaneously fund four large capital projects is squeezing operating budgets and leaving less for the schools.
- The lack of investment in our schools has resulted in fewer teachers, deteriorating and unsafe buildings (like ARMS) and an overall sharp decline in the quality of our educational system.
- And as our schools decline in quality, more students leave to find other options. This flight will continue to suck away our funding, plunging us further into crisis.
- These proposed budgets still cut $1.5 million and approximately 20 positions across the two districts – no other department is looking at cuts like this.
- A crisis in our schools is a crisis that impacts the future of the community as a whole
Equity over Equality in Funding
- Equality in funding is not fair or equitable because other departments in our town do not face the same dire needs as our schools. Other departments may feel a strain but they are NOT in Crisis.
- ONLY SCHOOLS have been asked to make devastating cuts.
- We can meet the basic needs of our town in other areas, while also acknowledging as a community that our schools have more urgent and long unmet needs.
- Our Town Master Plan enumerates a commitment to “support high-quality schools that are adequately staffed and properly equipped” – and the Town Council has an obligation to this commitment.
Reconsider the practice of equal percentage increases across all sectors (library, municipal, schools)
- This is NOT a common way of allocating resources in other communities – because other communities recognize that different departments have different needs and budget accordingly.
- This practice has been justified by a desire to avoid fighting over limited resources, but that is already happening. And our kids are getting hurt
- Funding in Amherst is already not equal – the Municipal side of the budget disproportionately benefits from capital funds and surpluses, supplementing operating budgets in ways not available to the schools
There is enough money to meet the basic needs of our children
- The large surplus Amherst has every year suggests that there is money that could be left in the operating budget if different choices were made – instead it is rolling into the capital fund
- The municipal side has ended each of the last five years with $1.4-$1.5 in unspent funds, which then just ends up in the surplus. These unspent funds alone would be enough to cover the additional money the schools are asking for. If one sector is leaving money on the table every year, while another is cutting dozens of positions, something is wrong.
- It is not too late to alter the allocation of resources for this year – this is a choice and we can make a different one.
See you Monday!