BELCHERTOWN — Residents at a public listening session last Thursday voiced their disappointment over the Select Board’s decision to advance a request for a $3.3 million Proposition 2½ general override to annual Town Meeting this spring, claiming the figure is too high for voters to stomach and puts school funding in jeopardy.

“This is a real slap in the face for anyone, especially the people that are losing their jobs in the school system,” resident Bruce Officer said.

Nearly all of the 40 residents who spoke during the 90-minute meeting in the Belchertown High School Auditorium supported the $1.6 million included in the override request in order to fully fund the school department’s level service budget.

Yet many were divided on the additional $1.7 million for other town departments and capital improvements.

“What I thought would be a true collaboration of all the perspectives and needs of the different town members turned into something much different,” Jessica Letzeisen said. “Sadly I do not feel that happened this week. I do agree all town departments need to be represented with any increases. However, in your excitement to include the wants of the town, you have come up with a total that is so comprehensive it may leave us with nothing.”

The School Committee recently reduced its request from $2.1 million to roughly $1.6 million. The remaining town departments had an initial budget shortfall of roughly $320,000, which Town Manager Steve Williams reduced to around $198,000 before proposing a wish list for the Select Board to consider during its March 31 meeting. Many of the items on the list, Williams said, were high-level positions cut during previous budget seasons that department heads had asked to reinstate, only to be turned down due to lack of funding.

Others speakers, like Jake Hulseberg and Eric Weiss, acknowledged the needs expressed by department heads. Belchertown’s taxes are far below surrounding towns and all departments are hurting from the town’s lack of incoming revenue, they said.

“As a Select Board, you have offered us a golden opportunity tonight,” resident Weiss said. “You have said we need an override. You have said that there are many facets to that override. There’s a school piece, a town piece, and some other unfilled positions. That is the investment that Belchertown needs to make in itself.”

Only one resident, Jim Natle, spoke against the Proposition 2½ override altogether. Natle dislikes that the estimated $700 to $800 tax increase would become a permanent part of the town’s tax base. He also condemned town leadership for failing to proactively find funding for positions supported by short-term grants.

“Adding on these extra positions that you’re looking for, some of them being grant positions that you had in the past,” Natle said. “You knew that they were coming up to (an end) and not having a plan in place for that, I think, is not a very good way to run the town.”

Several teachers at Chestnut Hill Community School spoke not only about their disappointment over position cuts — Chestnut Hill would lose two positions if the override fails — but the disheartening impacts on their students.

Fourth grade teacher Sara Mackiewicz, who returned to her hometown to teach, said she was told teachers only leave Belchertown Public Schools to retire or take a new position. However, when Mackiewicz was told she is one of the 22.5 positions that will be cut without an override, she discovered an unlikely third way to leave the school: budget restrictions. 

Third grade teacher and Belchertown High School graduate Abby Holmes discussed the difficulty of squeezing 26 students in her classroom this year, and how the cuts would ultimately overwhelm teachers and degrade the quality of education in town.

Wendy Robinson, who has taught in Belchertown for 31 years, said her class sizes were 32 kids at the beginning of her career, yet the 22 students in her classroom today have more needs and require more attention than her larger classes did previously.

“What I’ve heard over and over again is presented is that people disappearing has no impact. It has an impact,” said Fran Frederick, president of the Belchertown Education Association. “It has an impact on the adults who are losing their positions. It has an impact on the children who see those adults disappear.”

Some of these teachers, echoed by many parents, rebuked the Select Board for asking the School Committee to reduce its override request, only to later make the override amount larger.

“There’s an awful lot of additions that weren’t transparent needs of the town at the time that budgets were being developed,” parent Jim Keek said. “I’ve got a suspicion that $2.1 million may have been achievable. I have a suspicion that $3.3 million is going to be difficult to get passed.”

Select Board Chair Ed Boscher said the board could not respond during the listening session, but would address questions and concerns at future meetings. Residents will vote on both a contingency and non-contingency town budget at Town Meeting on May 12, so that regardless of whether the ballot measure passes during town elections on May 19, the town will have a budget.  

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.