AMHERST — Amherst officials are becoming increasingly concerned with efforts to revise the formula by which the four Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools member towns contribute to its operating budget. The options take into account not only enrollment but each of the four towns’ ability to pay.
At a meeting of the four towns Saturday to discuss the projected $32.01 million budget for fiscal year 2022, and what each town should pay to educate students at the middle and high schools, Amherst At-Large Councilor Andy Steinberg said moving away from the formula of a 5-year rolling average of enrollment to a more complex method determined by the state could lead to the district’s demise.
“If we continue on a path where the end result is the statutory method, it is going to destroy this region because it is going destroy the quality of education,” Steinberg said. “There’s no way we can maintain the kind of budget this region needs and get to that end result.”
But for officials in Shutesbury, where a push to eventually get to a fully modified statutory formula has been ongoing, a more progressive formula is needed that factors in the wealth of a community, such as through income and property values.
“I’m incredibly disheartened by the line Amherst has taken,” said Shutesbury Town Administrator Becky Torres, adding that it appears Amherst officials are denying an equity issue exists between the towns.
Amherst Town Council, along with the Town Meetings in Shutesbury, Leverett and Pelham this spring, will have to take votes on the method used for the assessment. The four towns have previously approved a modified statutory formula.
Study committees have been formed in recent years to hammer out agreements on what the formula should be. Superintendent Michael Morris said the tension between the ability to pay and equal cost per pupil is a longstanding one.
Amherst Council President Lynn Griesemer said from her perspective it’s beginning to feel like the budget pressures are being placed on the back of the Amherst, as revised methods of calculating assessments would force the town to pay an assessment higher than the projected $16.55 million assessment using a 5-year rolling average.
Steinberg said Amherst, due to its size and more extensive government, bears other budget pressures that don’t exist in the smaller communities.
At-Large Amherst councilor Mandi Joe Hanneke endorsed using the formula where per-pupil costs are the same for each town. “It seems the most fair,” Hanneke said.
But this rolling-average formula is least favorable to Shutesbury, which would pay a $1.76 million assessment. Under a full statutory formula, Shutesbury’s payment would drop to $1.43 million.
Shutesbury Finance Committee member Bob Groves said if there is no movement toward a more progressive formula, Shutesbury Town Meeting could vote against it. That would disrupt the budget process since the formula has to be approved in all four towns.
Leverett officials are willing to go part of the way toward the statutory method, said Select Board Chairwoman Julie Shively, though, like Amherst, Leverett considers the rolling-average formula the fairest.
Pelham Finance Committee member John Trickey said Pelham is comfortable moving part of the way toward the statutory method.
