Nothing gave us more pride than when, on May 22, 2018, residents of Easthampton showed up at the polls and voted for a new school, and made an investment in our city’s future: our children.
Concerned residents asked probing questions: How will this impact our taxes? Will this massive investment and consolidation of our school facilities mean that our talented staff would lose their jobs? Easthampton made a promise that we would try to alleviate the burden of taxes and protect the jobs of our school staff, and the community overwhelming voted in support of the new school.
Voting for a new school, the city’s voters made clear that in Easthampton, we value our children, we value their futures, and we value the future of our community. If we do right by them, they will become engaged citizens. Police officers who keep our community safe, city employees maintaining our roads, nurses taking care of our residents — maybe epidemiologists preparing for the next pandemic.
The mayor’s current budget will devastate our school community, leaving the school in a position to eliminate positions and cut essential services. A community already vulnerable from living through a pandemic. At the School Committee meeting on May 24, we listened and tried to make sense of the dynamics that led to a budget that would so devastate our school community.
Where was the breakdown of communication? Did this all come down to processes and procedures? What led these two parties, the School Committee and mayor, to fail to be in alignment on a budget both had been working on for months?
Regardless, it’s unacceptable. We ask our Easthampton neighbors, who care about the future of our youth, the future of Easthampton, to hold our public officials accountable and ask these same probing questions. And we ask our public officials to pass the budget that our school community needs, and deserves.
Jenny Papageorge
Sean Casey
Easthampton