Updates from Public Meetings

Check out Superintendent Xi’s presentation! 12/17/24 joint school committee meeting: The meeting between the Amherst School Committee and the Regional School Committee was packed with discussion and information and is really worth watching. Dr. Xi presented her entry plan findings, detailing some of the challenges she found in the district and some initial recommendations. Other important topics were also discussed, including the budget for the elementary schools. Video available here – try watching at 1.5x speed to save yourself some time! Time stamps are below for specific topics. Regional Schools Four Towns Meeting Recap: Discussion of the timeline of when towns can reasonably predict their revenue for the next year and therefore when the school districts can negotiate for that money. Frustration at how the Town of Amherst breakout session went with the Amherst Town Council President running that conversation.  Dr. Xi’s Entry Presentation (Time Stamp 1:01:00): Dr. Xi...

There is still a $2.4 million+ school funding gap for next year 12/16/24 Town Council Meeting: Video recording is here. Town Council approved the FY26 Financial Guidelines which give the schools a 3% increase over the FY25 numbers and does not include the total amount the Region received last year in the base for FY26. These financial guidelines leave large deficits at both the elementary ($1,478,143) and regional schools (approx. $1M). The guidelines do say that as soon as other revenue is available, the full amount for the region should be included in the base, so that is at least progress. In terms of the surplus, Councilor Ryan put forth yet another request for $500,000 for roads and sidewalks, and this has been advanced to the Finance Committee. The remaining unspent $500,000 will remain for now in free cash, and in theory is available for request if Dr. Xi makes one. 

Your public comment needed tonight (12/16/24) ***TONIGHT*** The final Town Council Meeting of 2024 will be Monday December 16 at 6:30 PM.  Join APEA members to tell Amherst Town Council that our schools are important. Join in-person at Town Hall, via Zoom or Submit a Written Public Comment.  Ask the Town Council to prioritize our schools in the FY26 Financial Guidelines and include the Region’s full amount in the base. Tell them why our schools matter to you. Remind them that the budgets Dr. Xi is asking for are not even level services budgets – they already include significant reductions and will mean deep cuts.

Four Towns Meeting Summary Four Towns Meeting SummaryAt the 12/14 Four Towns Mtg, Dr. Xi presented updated budget projections for the 2025-2026 school year for the Regional Schools. With the new updates, the projected deficit has decreased but still stands at approximately $1 million. Dr. Xi and School Committee members did a great job of advocating for our schools to town officials from Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett. If you have a moment, consider sending them a note of thanks (RegionalSchoolCommittee@arps.org, hermanx@arps.org).  Some key points:  Dr. Xi is already planning for 2025-2026 and really needs to know soon how much money she can count on. Amherst’s timeline of updating information in the spring doesn’t help. Nor does conservative budgeting that generates an end of year surplus instead of prioritizing operating budgets now.  Dr. Xi and her team have already found $900,000 in savings in the budget, and have done exactly what towns have asked of them, in...

12/14, 12/16 & 12/17 – Add our schools to your holiday to do list Upcoming events & Action Items: Attend Dr. Xi’s Listening Lounge on Friday 12/13 at 4:30 and/or submit a question for the Listening Lounge. This could be a good opportunity to express concern about the state of our facilities and/or encourage Dr. Xi to request part of the Town of Amherst’s surplus for the schools or ask what the status is of this. UPDATE: At the Listening Lounge Dr. Xi confirmed she will be asking for some surplus funds. Four Towns Meeting 12/14 9:00 AM in the ARMS Library: Representatives from Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett will meet to discuss funding for the Regional Schools. There is no public comment at this meeting, but members of the public are welcome to attend – and it’s always good to let our public officials know we are paying attention and that our kids at ARMS & ARHS are still Amherst residents who deserve great schools. ...

We’re waiting for the Superintendent & Town Manager, and 12/16 Where do things stand?  The Amherst Finance Committee is still working on finalizing the  FY26 Financial Guidelines, and will discuss again Tuesday 12/10 3-5PM.  As of right now, the Financial Guidelines do not include the $355,400 that the Regional Schools received last year in their base for calculating this year’s 3% increase. Instead, the guidelines instruct the Town Manager to prioritize inclusion of this increase if there is adequate money once revenue and expense projections are better known in January and into the spring. So, this is progress but the money is not yet a given. The guidelines currently give each of Amherst’s functional areas (Municipal, Elementary Schools, Regional Schools, Library) a 3% increase over last year. Unfortunately, this amount will still result in significant budget deficits at the schools. In Finance Committee, some Town Councilors have been asking some really good questions...

School District will request capital funds from Amherst but this money won’t help close operating budget deficit At the 11/19/24 Amherst School Committee Meeting, School Committee Members and Dr. Xi discussed the need to put together a request for approximately $500,000, or half of the amount of the surplus that the Town Council held off on appropriating for roads and sidewalks on 11/18. Since the Town Council is likely to limit the use of the funds to capital requests, rather than recurring expenditures such as salaries, the proposal from the school districts will focus on that. Dr. Xi emphasized that while she intends to put together a proposal, the most helpful thing that the Town Council can do right now for the Regional Schools would be to include the additional $355,440 given to the Region last year in the base when making this year’s calculation. This, and not capital money, will help with offsetting the predicted deficit in operating costs for...

Thanks so much to everyone who advocated for our public schools last night, in-person, via Zoom and by submitting written comments. Thirty people spoke at the budget hearing last night (in person and on zoom) and of those, twenty-nine spoke in support of prioritizing our public schools. It seems like the message about prioritizing the schools is starting to get through, but there are still obstacles as well as resistance.    The most important takeaway from last night is that the Town Council voted to hold off on appropriating $1 million of the surplus to roads and sidewalks in order to give the schools time to make a request for some of this money for capital needs. Below is a more detailed summary as well as some observations. The recording is available (Start at 1:30:00). The next important date will be the 12/2 6:30 PM Town Council Meeting – Between now and then we will get more information about whether the Town Council is...

The needle is starting to move on how the Amherst Town Council and Finance Committee is talking about school funding, which is great! The Finance Committee spent a good deal of the last meeting talking about school funding and debating whether it is possible to appropriate more money to the schools and change the way budgeting is done in the future.  This does not mean that more money will come to the schools, or even that some of the surplus will come to the schools, but it has become part of the conversation which is encouraging.  At Tuesday’s Regional School Committee meeting, there was an interesting discussion among School Committee Members about the budget and the Town of Amherst’s surplus and proposed allocations. The Regional School Committee intends to ask for a portion of the surplus although it’s unclear whether their proposal will come in time, given that the Town Council seems poised to appropriate most of it on Monday 11/18/24. This is why we should push...