AMHERST — A $29.98 million fiscal year 2027 budget that maintains math and reading interventionists and various specialists, while making a slight reduction in central office spending, is being recommended by the Amherst School Committee.
In a 5-0 vote Tuesday, after initially rejecting a significantly higher level services budget proposal, the committee adopted a spending plan that represents a $1.66 million, or 5.87%, increase over this year’s $28.32 million budget.
The budget is $572,310 above the guidance of a 3.85% increase recommended by the Town Council. The committee’s budget, which had to be approved by April 1, now goes to Town Manager Paul Bockelman to incorporate into the total municipal budget spending plan, alongside the town’s $20.43 million assessment for the $38.85 million fiscal year 2027 budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools.
Committee member Sarah Marshall said the budget is a reasonable request that the Town Council might be able to adopt, even though it is above guidance.
“It does preserve resources for student services that I and all of us here think are really critical, but it doesn’t force other reductions,” Marshall said.
The budget comes as the district this fall will be consolidating the K-6 Wildwood and Fort River schools into the new K-5 Amethyst Brook Elementary School, with Crocker Farm also becoming a K-5 school with an early childhood education center. Sixth graders will be educated in the Chestnut Street Academy, classrooms located in a wing of the Amherst Regional Middle School.
Committee member Bridget Hynes said she appreciates that the budget doesn’t ask specialists at Amethyst Brook to essentially do the jobs of two people; she wants to ensure that there is sufficient staffing for library technology, art, music and gym. With 30 sections of classes at the new school, there had been concerns about giving these staff members too much of a workload.
Restoring interventionists will also reduce gaps in reading and math at the elementary school before those students get to the middle school, Hynes said.
“Those positions are essential, I can’t pass a budget that cuts them,” Hynes said.
The budget does eliminate three classroom teachers and four non-program special education teachers, along with a psychologist and custodian. Hynes said it is understandable that consolidation would provide such savings.
Committee member Laura Jane Hunter, though, asked and proposed that level services, at a 9.11%, or $2.58 million, increase be adopted. This was turned down in a 4-1 vote.
“I would step away from any of these other options and focus on requesting level services so our students are not harmed in any way and our educators are not harmed in any way,” Hunter said.
Hunter said the budget adopted partially covers what she asked for, reducing 1% of central administration costs from $1.37 million to $1.36 million.
Before its nearly hourlong discussion, the committee was presented with four budget scenarios, with the others showing overall 5% and 3.85% increases, as developed by Chairwoman Deb Leonard rather than district administrators.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman said she and her team worked to create a response within 24 hours of memorandums from the committee to develop and present additional budgets, but were unable to examine those created by Leonard to determine what the consequences would be for district operations.
As the meeting began, Marshall said she was concerned that Leonard had brought forward two of her own budgets, and that doing so was not being appropriately collegial.
“I’m really unhappy with that because in my mind it undercuts our consensus,” Marshall said.
In the end, neither proposal elicited much discussion, with Leonard pulling the 5% budget from consideration and the committee members saying they were not interested in the 3.85% that met Town Council guidance, in part due to the extensive feedback from families and staff members raising concerns about reduced staffing.
