This article has been updated to correctly attribute comments to Tish Serrani.
On Thursday, over 60 teachers, parents, students, and community members gathered outside Northampton City Hall in pouring rain to call for increased school funding.
The basic demand of the group, who collectively call themselves Support Our Schools, has remained the same for nearly a year now, after Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s proposed cuts to the city’s school budget sparked outrage last winter. The nascent Support Our Schools movement saw some success at the time in demanding additional funds for the current school year, but the final budget still cut approximately 20 jobs. SOS says that more layoffs are expected next year unless the budget increases.
But now that job cuts have already taken place, advocates say City Council has the opportunity to restore some of the lost jobs. The mayor and City Council are permitted to reallocate funds at any time with a two-thirds majority vote.
“The city has chosen to continue to accumulate mountains of cash reserved for capital projects, while laying off teachers and student support,” community member Shelly Berkowitz said at the rally.
Berkowitz referred to the mayor’s prioritization of setting aside “free cash,” or undesignated surplus funds, into various stabilization accounts which fund non-recurring costs. The state typically certifies Northampton’s free cash around December, and the city reports to expect around $6-8 million this year.
Until then, SOS plans to pressure the council to introduce a resolution for a mid-year budget appropriation that would restore lost school jobs.
Without a mid-year allocation, the mayor could designate the certified free cash towards capital projects and stabilization funds, which SOS members argue are already well funded. The city currently has a AAA bond rating, the highest rating possible for fiscal stability, which allows the city to borrow money at better interest rates.
In a recent city newsletter, Sciarra argued that the city’s usual approach to free cash — splitting it between the city’s stabilization funds, capital improvements, and emergency expenses — is in keeping with best practices advised by the Division of Local Services, a state agency. As non-recurring funds, she wrote, using free cash to fund the city’s operational budget is “not recommended.”
But according to SOS member and Northampton resident Al Simon, this is the “perfect time” to propose a mid-year appropriation. “We know most of the elected officials went along with the school cuts, and we’re hoping to change their mind,” said Simon. “There’s been real harm from these cuts, which we tried to explain.”
“It’s about repairing some of the damage, but there is way more to do,” said Simon.
Simon mentioned that the Town Council in nearby Amherst just rejected a free cash transfer to the town’s capital program, partially in response to families worried about school funding.
Thursday’s rally carried over into the council’s meeting, with dozens of advocates speaking during the hour-long public comment period, including a fifth grade student. Nearly every speaker voiced issues that have come up in the past three months of school.
Overcrowded classrooms have been causing challenges for both students and teachers, several speakers said. One Northampton High School junior said sometimes classes are so big they don’t have enough desks for everyone.
One third-grade teacher at Bridge Street Elementary School has 22 students in the classroom, five of whom are English language learners and two of whom speak no English at all. Northampton resident Paula Regano-Murphy read a statement on this teacher’s behalf at the council meeting.
“The needs in my room are incredibly wide-ranging,” Regano-Murphy read. “From students who can’t read yet, and don’t know the alphabet, to students who are reading at a fifth grade level … To be asked to differentiate lessons at this level is an impossible task.”
Northampton resident Sophia Zucker, speaking on behalf of an elementary school teacher, said that some refugee children only receive 30 minutes of English instruction each day outside of the classroom.
SOS member Loli Viana read a statement from the band director at NHS, who Viana said gets $833.33 and allocates it entirely for the marching band, leaving other courses entirely supported by grants.
“$833 is not enough to replace a single instrument or fund a round-trip bus ride to perform at events,” Viana read, adding that neighboring districts have much higher budgets for their instrumental programs. Amherst and Frontier’s budget is $7,000 while Agawam, West Springfield, and Chicopee have a band budget of $12,000, according to Viana.
A handful of speakers, including Northampton resident Tish Serrani, said underfunding public schools can push families into enrolling at charter and private schools, reinforcing a class divide. Local tutoring companies have been experiencing increased volume as well, according to Serrani. But, as several members of the public brought up, the most vulnerable students are typically the ones who can’t afford outside tutoring.
SOS members said they plan to continue applying pressure and will be back next budget season to advocate for more school funding again.
“The harm from the mayor’s unnecessary cuts to our public schools must be reversed, and then the city needs to start the long march of properly funding our schools,” Simon said. “Public education is a priority, we want our city and all its elected officials to acknowledge that, and act accordingly.”
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