Having seen a first draft of the upcoming Northampton school budget, which includes one version based on passage of the override, and another based on its rejection, I am writing in hopes of conveying how urgently we need to vote yes on March 3.
I ran for School Committee in Ward 5 this past fall because I am passionate about public education, and hope to do all I can to bolster our school system and make it even stronger. Now that I am on the committee, I have come to understand how drastically our schools, as well as our entire municipal government, are underfunded by the state.
When running for School Committee, my platform included an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. As a diversity and inclusion practitioner, I am continuously working to consider issues through the lens of equity and fairness. As such, I wish our city were not in a position of having to ask community members, many of whom are struggling to get by financially, to commit more in the way of taxes to fund our city and schools.
We must work with our state representatives toward more fair and robust funding formulas. However, we must also meet our current needs. Our mayor and his team have worked hard to make the last override stretch far longer than expected. We now find ourselves in the position of having to ask the community for more funding, or risk cutting invaluable services to both our city and schools.
I can say without a doubt that a yes vote is the difference between a school system that will continue to strive to meet the needs of every student and family, and one that will struggle to meet those needs. I hope you will join me in working with our state representatives to find a future solution where we do not need to keep asking the community to pay more in taxes to fund our cities and schools.
In the meantime, please join me in voting yes on March 3.
Dina Levi
Northampton
The author represents Ward 5 on the School Committee.