SOUTH HADLEY — Well-funded schools — including extracurricular activities — are the bedrock of the town’s safe, secure and community-oriented neighborhoods, but many residents worry that that bedrock will quickly crumble should the town not come up with a plan to adequately fund the school system in the face of looming steep budget deficits facing the town.
“I can bring a bunch of little ones with me, and they will gladly tell you how important their schools are,” South Hadley resident and mother Tara Cole said. “You can all think of that person in your strong schools who helped you. Why would we take that away from them?”
This was the recurring message from residents at a Budget Task Force Listening Session on Monday night. The community meeting served as one of two chances for residents to voice their funding priorities, air their financial concerns and ask questions about the town’s approach to mitigating a $3 million structural deficit on the horizon for fiscal year 2027. Town officials have warned that the deficit will increase in $2 million increments each year for the foreseeable future.
“We have a pretty significant deficit driven by rising costs, which have exceeded revenue,” said Kevin McAllister, who co-chairs the task force.
Due to this projected shortfall, many town and school services and staff positions are at risk. Previous suggested cuts include closing the Gaylord Memorial Library, reducing hours at the South Hadley Public Library and at Town Hall. The School Department, meanwhile, could lose 20 school staff members and extracurricular activities, including sports.
“If that’s cut, there’s there are going to be some really serious, long-term effects,” South Hadley Education Association President Amy Foley said. “I see one of the priorities being safe roads or as a safe community. If our students don’t have healthy outlets, our roads aren’t going to be safe anymore, so please make our schools a priority.”
The Budget Task Force was created in July after the Hampshire Country Group Insurance Trust announced a 20% midyear increase in insurance premiums. The 12-member advisory group is tasked with crafting a financial road map to navigate the budget deficit.
“I’d say we’re getting closer to making some recommendations. It’ll probably be a combination of solutions,” McAllister told those gathered Monday. “The more we hear from you as a community, the more we can find ways to make this community strong and get through this together.”
Monday’s listening session will be followed by another meeting on Jan. 22, and residents can also fill out an anonymous survey on the town’s finances on the Budget Task Force‘s webpage. Melinda Tarsi-Goldfien, professor of political science at Bridgewater State University, offered to run study and analyze the results at no cost.
Looking locally
While McAllister said the listening session would not provide answers, Town Administrator Lisa Wong gave some insights into potential revenue-generating options. New growth is an essential way that other towns, like Hadley, Amherst, Ludlow and East Longmeadow, are keeping up with rising expenses.
“If the town doesn’t seem to have a high tolerance for growth and wants to stay mainly a bedroom type community, it will cost more to live in a bedroom community,” said Select Board member Andrea Miles, who is a member of the task force.
A more long-term way to raise revenue by entering into a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement with nonprofits and institutions such as Mount Holyoke College.
“There are hundreds of tax-exempt properties in town due to the nonprofit status of the property owners,” resident Linda Sachs said. “The town is struggling, and it’s time everybody stepped up and pitched in.”
A PILOT policy may take some time to research, write and implement, Wong said. It is not a short-term fix.
Another solution to explore involves sharing services with other communities. Wong said the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission has initiated some conversations around shared services, but that she will reach out to other towns to engage in more concrete conversations.
“If sharing means that we are paying more for more, I don’t know if we can afford that,” Wong said.
Superintendent Jennifer Voyik said schools already share services for part-time positions. The district has reached out to Granby School District to discuss transporting their special education students with transportation vans South Hadley bought last year.
“As far as regionalization, I think it’s really complicated,” Voyik said, referring to regionalizing school systems. “Each community has to provide a percentage based off of its students attending that regionalized school system, and we’d also have to have a place to house all of those students.”
State offers no reprieve
Over half of South Hadley’s state aid is for education, even though the state considers the town a “minimum aid district.” State funding only increases $75 per student each year, which is not enough to keep up with inflation or the rising cost of mandated special education services, officials said.
“We have had very little growth in town in the last couple years, and state aid is basically flat or less than flat,” McAllister said. “It’s not exactly a good situation to find ourselves in.”
Wong seemed pessimistic of the state’s ability to step in. She said the town is one of hundreds of nonprofits, municipalities and public higher education institutions asking the state for more money. As the federal government threatens or moves to cut grants, education funding and public health care programs, the state has tightened its own purse strings.
“It is no surprise that there are some ballot questions right now that are specifically aimed at auditing the state Legislature,” Wong said. “The budget process is sort of a … secretive process that many of us don’t know about. You will see many attempts by municipalities, including us, to lobby, to beg, to work with organizations (and) to work with our associations with very little impact.”
The Budget Task Force is expected to deliver its report to the Select Board on Feb. 9, 2026. This report will also include any recommendations for a Proposition 2½ override vote. If the Select Board approves asking for an override, Town Meeting members would vote on the request at a special Town Meeting on Feb. 22. Then, the override must pass at the ballot box in April.
Wong said there will be other times for non-Town Meeting members to voice their opinions and concerns, including at the Jan. 22 listening session.