NORTHAMPTON — After yet another City Council meeting that drew protests outside and tense negotiations inside, councilors took no vote on Thursday night on the upcoming fiscal year 2025 general fund budget
Funding for the city’s public school district continued to be the sticking point. During the meeting, councilors planned to consider and vote on multiple financial orders related to the general fund budget and city schools budget. One of these financial orders proposed by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra would allocate a chunk of city reserve funds to create a special education stabilization fund, which would be sustained with future annual recurring medical reimbursement funds and be available to cover unforeseen special education expenses.
This comes after Sciarra had already amended her proposed budget to include an additional $1.2 million for the school system after receiving early criticism from community members and the school staff union that proposed school services cuts were unacceptable.
Outside City Hall, preceding the meeting and budget vote, parents, students, educators, and other stakeholders demanded a level services education budget.
Inside the meeting, tensions were high as community members ran out the clock on the allotted public speaking time, with most speakers addressing the school budget funding shortfall. Many placed blame on various elected officials and departments.
School Committee member Micheal Stein took aim at the renovation expense of the former First Baptist Church building for the Division of Community Care Resilience Hub. Andrea Egitto, president of the Northampton Association of School Employees, joined Stein in that criticism She referenced the Division of Community Care budget and said there has been national attention on the DCC and its Resilience Hub being recognized as a public health model and putting Northampton “on the map.”
“It’s all about the show but it’s not about our children,” she said.
During an earlier budget hearing on May 29, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Division of Community Care, presented a budget largely supplemented by grants.
A few commenters raised parallels to the Northampton Police Department budget, questioning how it was possible that the NPD’s allocation continued to grow to nearly $7 million while other departments struggled to meet level service funding each year.
“It is disappointing enough that this city always finds money for its police before securing a future for its schools,” Ward 3 resident Brett Belcastro said. “At the absolute least, the bare minimum that we should expect from our government is the ability to maintain the funding and keep these jobs.”.
Many commenters said level-service education funding was the “bare minimum” and expressed both frustration and concern at not being able to reach that bar. Speakers repeatedly raised alarm that math, reading, special education, and tiered support positions were the targets of the 21 proposed layoffs that will be required under Sciarra’s current budget. A handful of people drew parallels to the 2017-2018 school year, when parents and teachers spoke out about what they said were dangerous and disorderly conditions during the rollout of a new special-education model in the district. During that year 19 educational support positions were eliminated and staff were expected to restructure and meet student needs with 5.5 special education teachers and the addition of one regular ed teacher, what resulted was a year filled with student and staff injuries.
“You can make little cuts and things can work out but you reach a point where there’s nothing to cut,” said Raymond Paquette, a math teacher at Northampton High School. He said he had eight days left before he was out of a job where he currently teaches classes with an average of 27 students at all levels, around one third of whom need individualized education plans.
In a shift from previous meetings, several elementary and middle school students ranging from fourth to eighth grade appealed to the City Council for a level-service budget. The students said they already felt the strain on their teachers and support staff and expressed uncertainty and distress about their futures and educational opportunities without the support that they and their peers currently rely on.
Jesse Cannon, a sixth-grade student at John F. Kennedy Middle School, told councilors he relied on an educational support professional to cope with severe separation anxiety in first and second grade. He asked the elected officials what would happen to students like him when those positions disappeared.
“What would happen to other kids if you cut ESPs and teachers and anybody in the schools like her?” he asked. “She made such a difference in my life I still keep in touch with her to this day.”
Friction continued between councilors, Sciarra, and city Finance Director Charlene Nardi as the group moved into the 2025 fiscal year budget discussion and vote following the public comments.
Councilors voted unanimously to create the special education stabilization fund that Sciarra had proposed, which would receive recurring annual revenue from medical reimbursements and allow for the possibility of allocating more funding to the schools during the fiscal year.
But when discussion turned to seeding the fund with $800,000 from the city’s free cash account and expenditure of the one-time financial gift from Smith College, tensions rose. Some councilors raised questions about the timing and necessity of such a decision.
Sciarra told the council they needed to vote to create and seed the account at the Thursday night meeting in order for the School Committee to vote on the creation of the account and use the funds in this year’s budget, which takes effect on July 1. Ward 7 Councilor Rachel Maiore questioned why the council couldn’t postpone the seeding vote until the next meeting. She said that would give the School Committee time to weigh the budget amendments – outlined during a special Finance Committee meeting on June 5 – and vote on the stabilization account.
Maiore emphasized that she supported the stabilization fund and seeding the fund. Ward 3 Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg said she felt the move to seed the fund was premature and that the city didn’t have money to be putting away in savings accounts.
“There’s no law against using our stabilization funds for recurring costs this year, this is an emergency,” she said.
“There is no law against it but it’s discouraged by all experts,” Sciarra responded.
Councilor Debby Pastrich-Klemer also looked for clarity on the funding rules and timeline connected to the seed money and the city’s free cash, asking if the only way to use the funds was to allocate them to the special stabilization fund before July 1. Nardi carefully answered that “if you have an order in front of you from the mayor then you can use those funds.” Maiore interjected, asking why not place the same funds in the operating budget with more flexibility.
“They’re one-time funds, the mayor is already committing $1.9 million from one-time reserves towards the budget,” Nardi said. “That is her amended budget that is before the council tonight.”
Rothenberg and Ward 4 Councilor Jeremy Dubs brought discussion to a halt with a charter objection, which prevented a vote on the orders. Ward 1 Councilor Stan Moulton and council President Alex Jarrett, who represents Ward 5, discussed possible ways to move the general budget forward while the objections had been made to both the stabilization fund seed money and the expenditure of the Smith College gift. Moulten suggested reducing the budget by those unconfirmed amounts and continuing forward, however that discussion was also stalled by further charter objections from Dubs and Rothenberg.
These portions of the budget discussion and vote will now take place at the June 20 City Council meeting, just 10 days before the fiscal year begins. Any non-designated funds will be frozen on July 1 and unusable until mid to late November, pending certification.
Update: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of three names, to include a more accurate description of the recurring source of the proposed stabilization fund, and to include a more exact number of students on individualized education plans in Raymond Paquette’s classrooms.
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Tommy Lee is a writer, investigative journalist, and audio video producer for community television based in Western Massachusetts.
