AMHERST — Protecting civil liberties, finding appropriate ways to fund the public schools and improving communication with the community are goals for the four candidates running for three at-large seats on the Town Council.
At a League of Women Voters candidates forum last week, incumbents Ellisha Walker and Mandi Jo Hanneke and challengers Andy Churchill and Allegra Clark outlined some of their goals shortly after six candidates for School Committee lamented the budget challenges the schools are facing.
Sporting a T-shirt reading “Abolish ICE” beneath her blazer, Clark said Amherst could better protect immigrants and their allies by adapting innovative policies for dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Amherst.
“I would love to see a stronger resolution about ICE not being allowed on properties that are municipally-owned or school properties,” Clark said. “I think we also need to protect all our constitutional rights, including the right to freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly.”
Hanneke said she has written legislation protecting reproductive freedom and access to health care, and that Amherst could pursue similar laws to those in California where ICE agents might be considered to be in violation of federal law.
“It’s bills like that on various levels that can help protect the civil liberties of all of our constituents,” Hanneke said.
Citing the town’s reaffirmation in 2024 of being a sanctuary community, Churchill said there is urgency to develop a response plan as a way of being prepared.
“I think we should continue to wear that label proudly,” he said. “At the same time, I think we need to recognize that could make us a magnet or target for this administration, which seems to delight in this kind of thing.”
“I think it’s an extremely important role of the Town Council to be looking at the ways of protecting rights and civil liberties, when a lot of these things are on the chopping block, especially at the federal level,” Walker said.
The community needs to understand its rights, which can be done by offering information in multiple languages and having resources like the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service available, she added.
For school funding, Hanneke said she has worked with neighboring towns and their school committees to get a common understanding of the challenges.
“Budgets are tough,” she said, with expenses outpacing inflation and rising insurance costs. “I agree we need to find ways to increase our revenues.
“We have to find a way to have the conversations in a manner that allows us to fund every important services for all of our residents,” she continued.
Churchill said he is running because of the need to figure out new revenue sources, and the conversations are tough because there isn’t enough money.
“I think we have a lot of potential for developing new revenue,” he said.
“I really want us to figure out ways for the Town Council and the school to use data on trends, and problem solve from that basis,” he continued.
After seeing staff and program cuts, Walker said a more honest and open relationship is needed.
“Schools are not adequately funded,” she said.
Walker said she has seen firsthhand how supplemental budget asks from the schools, such as restoring art and technology teachers to full time, was turned down by the Town Council
“Our kids are our future. They are the most important and consequential investment we can make,” she said.
Clark said funding has been diminished and programs cut since her time as a student there in the early 2000s.
“There does need to be a more collaborative relationship between the School Committee Town Council,” Clark said. “I think it comes down to thinking creatively and looking at the data.”
One solution, she said, would be tapping into the year-end surplus, which she said has risen to $6 million.
Whether councilors are adequately representing the voices of the town is also a concern.
“I see my role as being a translator, somebody who can take in from the community what I’m hearing and also distill back what the government is trying to do on your behalf,” Churchill said.
Walker said community outreach has been narrow, reaching the affluent homeowners and missing Black, Indigenous and people of color, immigrants and renters.
“One of the concrete ways I’m thinking about specifically is how we allow people to participate in our committees and what that time commitment looks like,” she said.
To show how she would address this, Clark responded in Spanish, adding that meetings still aren’t being translated into other languages, even though more than 30 languages are spoken in the elementary schools.
“Language access is a huge issue that immediately leaves out a large population,” Clark said.
Hanneke said that the public forum concept is important and instant pocket translators allow anyone to participate.
“We can always do better with transparency,” she said.
School Committee candidates
The field of six candidates for the five positions on the School Committee are incumbents Deb Leonard, Bridget Hynes and Sarah Marshall and newcomers Laura Jane Hunter, Andrew Hart and Esther Azar.
Those already on the committee cited the budget as a major challenge, with Marshall calling for more planning and advocacy at the state level to make this smoother and less difficult.
“In this era when funding is falling so short, and the needs in schools are so great, at least for the last two years, it’s been a very painful, and somewhat contentious, process,” Marshall said.
Hynes said $2 million in school cuts for the past two years have had a tremendous impact on administrators, staff and teachers.
“I’m just trying to advocate for solutions, like solar or green HVAC, to reduce some of the pressure on our operating budgets,” she said. “Anything we can do to make the budget process better is going to make a win. Our children are worth it. Our students are worth it.”
Leonard said getting ahead, rather than reacting, and improving communication, would help with the budget situation.
“We could do a better job of getting our self-governance (to be) more reflective, and part of that involves some self-evaluation, which we haven’t done,” Leonard said.
The idea of a strategic framework is necessary for budgeting, Hart said.
“Something to where we could set ourselves up to look not just one year ahead, but five years ahead, and we could agree what we want our schools to become,” Hart said.
Azar was more blunt in outlining her concerns with the budget process, stating that town officials are prioritizing buyimg new vehicles rather than supporting children.
“We need to think about the state of our schools, which right now are in crisis,” Azar said. “Our kids don’t have teachers in the classrooms, and that needs to be addressed, and it really starts with the budget.
“If we want to fight fascism in the world, we need to take care of our children,” Azar continued.
Outside of budget matters, Hunter called for a new way to evaluate the superintendent’s work and contended that the district continues to hold onto an era characterized by “cronyism and corruption” in its hiring practices.
“Creating a 360-degree evaluation plan where all the constituents are included … is something that is missing right now,” Hunter said.
The candidates all agreed that the schools can do a better job of supporting marginalized students.
For Hunter, this starts with being aware of the privilege to live in Amherst and the educational system that exists in town.
“We cannot ignore institutionalized racism, which is baked deeply into all systems in the United States,” Hunter said, and argued that not enough is being done for what she terms “neurospicyness” children.
“No canned curriculum, no teaching to the tests, that is not going to help our students,” she continued.
“We have a responsibility to create belonging for all of our students, and that means that when we’re making decisions on the policy level that we want to think about what kind of learning can happens in the classroom that includes everybody,” Azar said.
Marshall said neurodiversity should be put into the policies, along with systems of support for academically struggling students.
“At this point, it’s a matter of defending the budget, defending the services that support those student groups,” Marshall said.
“Every student deserves to walk into the school building and feel seen, welcomed and appreciated and sometimes celebrated, and structuring our classrooms so that happens is really important,” said Hynes, who helped launch the Welcoming Schools training initiative.
Educators are stretched thin and the schools need to put money where values are, Leonard said, including a welcoming environment.
“You can’t learn if you don’t feel that way, it’s the foundation and of course it cuts through every layer of their experience here,” Leonard said.
Hart said diversity needs to include learning differences.
“I think things like universal design, making sure that curriculum can meet students where their differences are, instead of asking them to meet us where we want them to be or think they should be,” Hart said.
Whether Caminantes, the dual-language program at Fort River School, should be expanded to the middle and high schools is uncertain. Leonard said that can’t be done without more money and buy-in from the other towns, and it also needs to made more compatible with the needs of all learners.
Hunter said experienced educators are devoted to the work they do and she wants to hear directly from students about the future of the program.
Hart said there are two separate tracks at Fort River and Caminantes isn’t accessible to all learners and is challenging for staff.
“Caminantes is a fantastic idea and it should exist but it should be rethought to be equitable for all students and faculty,” Hart said.
Hynes said Caminantes is a “gem” in the system and bilingual education makes students stronger academically all around. “Caminantes is a key to the way forward,” she said.
“I know that Caminantes is really important and we need to find a way to make it work and it’s going to take a lot of creative thinking,” Azar said.
Marshall said she’s not sure how it would work at the regional level, but that it could grow to occupy a full school, which if in one building would reduce the issues that have occurred at Fort River.