City Council President Alex Jarrett and the rest of the council discussed and approved extra money to the fiscal year 2025 school budget provided by the state on July 31.
Photo credit: Northampton Open Media
NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton City Council and School Committee each voted to appropriate an additional $192,400 from the state to the fiscal year 2025 school budget that was passed earlier this summer.
The money comes from a $57.8 billion state budget that Gov. Maura Healey officially signed on July 29, which gives more money to schools.
In the case of Northampton, the extra $192,400 reflects an increase of $104 per student in Chapter 70 funds over FY24, a much higher total than the $30 per student that was originally proposed in the governor’s budget.
The money brings the total FY25 school budget in Northampton to $40.97 million.
According to Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, the new state budget also includes an additional $8,806 for Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.
“I want to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of [state] Sen. Jo Comerford [D-Northampton], [state] Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa [D-Northampton], the Northampton Association of School Employees, Superintendent Dr. Portia Bonner, the mayor’s office and the countless parents and residents who have urged the state to increase per student spending in this way,” Sciarra said in a statement before the governor officially signed the budget. “Their advocacy has been instrumental in reaching this point.”
Despite receiving the money from the state for FY25, Sciarra said she could not guarantee that the state will provide this allocation each year but she is hopeful that a new baseline is set.
“Clearly, [the state’s] intention this year was to get more funding directly into districts,” Sciarra said. “So, I hope they can keep it up.”
The City Council and the School Committee each conducted a special meeting on July 31 to officially appropriate the funds to the FY25 school budget.
City Council
Just prior to the School Committee meeting, the City Council officially appropriated the $192,400 from the state to the school budget.
The councilors voted on it unanimously.
“I want to thank our Sen. Jo Comerford and our state Rep Lindsay Sabadosa … our finance director, our mayor, our city councilors, School Committee, to find this extra funding and for making it happen with our governor,” said Ward 6 City Councilor Marianne LaBarge. “I think this was critical.”
Ward 1 City Councilor Stan Moulton also commended state lawmakers, the Northampton Association of School Employees, the community and the mayor for helping to obtain this additional money.
“I want to echo the recognition of the work of our legislators to advocate for the increased per pupil allocation from the state,” Moulton said. “It went from $30 per student up to $104. That seems significant to me.”
Despite voting yes, Ward 3 City Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg stated that the district is still in need of more money to fill student facing positions.
“This is no great victory,” Rothenberg said. “The schools are still in a very dire situation.”
School Committee
The School Committee spent its meeting deciding where to allocate the $192,400 to help retain a few of the 22 positions on the chopping block under the original $40.8 million budget. After considering a few different proposals from a spreadsheet, including the one Ward 3 member Emily Serafy-Cox offered last week — as reported by Reminder Publishing — the committee ultimately decided in a 6-3 vote to add back the equivalency of 2.7 full time positions in the FY25 budget.
The decision, which aligned with a district priorities list, includes the restoration of a full time JFK Middle School math interventionist and the adjustment counselor at Northampton High School.
Almost everyone on the committee expressed support in retaining the adjustment counselor at the high school.
“The adjustment counselor at the high school, I think is a critical thing to gain back,” said At-Large School Committee member Aline Davis.
There was also a growing consensus among the committee that picking which positions to restore and which to not was an incredibly difficult decision that included many factors to consider, such as class sizes, enrollment and how the proposed cuts in the budget would affect the district’s most vulnerable students.
Other proposals, such as one created by Ward 6 member Margaret Miller and another created by the principals across the district, were also considered when it came to restoring positions.
“I think the hard thing probably for all of us is that this budget that we’re stuck with is going to hurt a lot of kids,” said Ward 4 Michael Stein, who, along with Serafy-Cox and Miller, voted no on the district priorities list since it did not retain enough positions. “We’re faced with a very small additional amount from the state, $192,400 as the only possibility to address a wide swath of needs.”
Stein and Serafy-Cox have spent the last several weeks advocating to restore more student-facing positions in the district by either using more money from the city’s Special Education Stabilization Fund, which was seeded by the council with $800,000, or by redirecting cuts elsewhere.
That proposal, however, was shot down during a July 24 and during the July 31 meetings.
During the July 31 meeting, Stein argued that using more money from the Special Education Stabilization Fund now is wise since the district is dealing with important needs in the present day.
Sciarra, however, has argued that using more money from the Special Education Stabilization Fund than the $200,528 that was already allocated for this year’s budget would not be a sustainable practice.
“Just to reiterate one more time that this fund was set up in a way so that it can be sustainable, so that each year there can be an appropriation,” Sciarra said during a tense exchange with Stein. “There can be an appropriation, and then if there are emergency costs, which do happen, then that is a source of funding for that.”
City Finance Director Charlene Nardi explained to the committee during the meeting that the fund is used to support special education operating costs that matches incoming recurring revenue of Medicaid funds. It also covers unforeseen or unanticipated special education costs in the budget.
Much like Sciarra, Nardi also cautioned using more special education funds in the FY25 budget than was already allocated.
“The concern, and as we talked about before, is if you use all the funds that we’ve supported now, you again have the hole, and how is it going to be filled?,” Nardi said. “We’ve tried to set this up so long term the budget is stable from those unforeseen costs.”
In her remarks, Ward 5 member Ann Hennessey, who was one of the six that voted yes on the restoration of 2.7 positions using the state money, emphasized the tough decisions the School Committee has faced around restorations and cuts.
“We have different ideas and different priorities,” Hennessey said. “I don’t think anyone’s wrong … every restoration would be correct.”
Ward 7 Member Kerry LaBounty, meanwhile, said that she supported using the $192,400 for the 2.7 positions based on district priorities because she did not see the other proposals put forth prior to the meeting.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask us to vote on something I have not seen,” LaBounty said. “It’s only been verbal.”
Miller asked to have another elementary position restored in the budget, but that amendment was shot down after the motion was made.
