NORTHAMPTON — The City Council on Thursday rejected a proposal that would have given it the authority to increase the school budget, with tense discussions highlighting the way school funding has divided city politics.
The order, recommended by Ward 7’s Rachel Maiore, called for the council to adopt Chapter 329 of the Acts of 1987, a state law that would allow the council to increase the budget beyond what the mayor recommends. Other municipalities in the commonwealth, such as Greenfield, Easthampton and Cambridge, have opted-in to Chapter 329. Currently, the council can only reduce parts of the budget, but cannot increase the budget for any item beyond the mayor’s recommendation.
“This is the council deciding to take responsibility and accountability for the largest department that we almost all agree is in perpetual crisis,” Maiore said on Thursday. “This is not a one person job, frankly, and our entire existence on council is to be a check.”
The issue of the school budget has roiled the city over the last year and half, with advocates of higher school spending pushing back against Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra’s handling of the budget. Last spring, the mayor originally proposed a 4% increase for the school budget for the current fiscal year, but ended up more than doubling that amount when the budget was adopted. Mid-year appropriations to the schools have brought that increase up to 9.8%. The budget still led to more than 20 positions being cut, though several of those jobs were restored over the course of the school year.
This year, Sciarra intends to increase school spending this year by 5.8%, though school funding advocates are asking for much more.
During Thursday’s council meeting, Ward 4 Councilor Jeremy Dubs, a proponent of higher school spending and in favor of the opt-in budget, called for unity in supporting the vote. The council has been sharply divided over the issue of school spending, with the vote on the current year’s budget being delayed by several weeks due to the school issue.
“If we can just agree on this thing, on this one item in front of us to opt-in, it doesn’t commit any of us to break with how we feel,” Dubs said. “Maybe it’s naive of me to say this, but I feel like we can agree that a robust and full conversation is worth having, and that all of our options on the table are worth having.”
However, the council voted down the opt-in measure by a 5-3 vote, with At-Large Councilor Marissa Elkins not present at the meeting. The vote was split largely along the lines of councilors who supported higher school spending, who voted in favor of the opt-in, versus those opposed, who voted against it.
Ward 3 Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg joined Dubs and Maiore in voting for the measure. Those voting against were at-large member Garrick Perry, Stanley Moulton of Ward 1, Deborah L. Klemer of Ward 2, Alex Jarrett of Ward 5 and Marianne LaBarge of Ward 6.
“This is not a panacea and just to say that by opting in we’ll have some magical ability [to fund the schools],” Perry said. “I really am not seeing how this one thing will relieve that pressure.”
The council discussions over the proposed order showed that tensions still exist within the council on the issue. Rothenberg, in arguing in favor for the opt-in, gave a hypothetical scenario where the council could agree to reduce the budget for the mayor’s office in order to force the mayor’s hand in a school budget dispute.
“That’s why we have that power,” Rothenberg said. “These are the tools that councils use to get the mayor to revise a budget the way they want it to be for the community.”
Rothenberg’s statements were met with a strong rebuke from Moulton.
“This is not a game,” Moulton said. “We don’t threaten to take away the mayor’s staff in order to get something that we want.”
Rothenberg then called for a five-minute recess, which was granted by Jarrett.
“Recesses can certainly be used if people are feeling a lot of emotion and need to cool down,” Jarrett said after the council resumed activity.
Northampton Public School Superintendent Portia Bonner previously told the Gazette that the increase in next year’s school budget, to $43.8 million, would be enough to prevent layoffs, although it would lead to a reduction in some services and elimination of several positions through attrition.
Sciarra is expected t o present the budget for fiscal 2026, which begins July 1, in the middle of this month.
