AMHERST — Families, staff members and elected officials are among those raising concerns about looming staff reductions at Amherst’s elementary schools should the Town Council adopt the $29.48 million budget for primary education incorporated into the town manager’s $107.1 million spending plan for fiscal year 2027.
At the Finance Committee’s budget hearing Monday, most of the comments during the hourlong session centered on how the proposed elementary school budget falls about $500,000 short of the $29.98 million budget requested by the Amherst School Committee, even though the 5.1% increase is well above the 3.85% increase in the budget guidelines set by the Town Council.
Due to a dramatic rise in the caseload for special education students, Angelica Bernal, a representative of the Special Education Parents Advisory Council steering committee, said the situation is already “critically untenable.”
“Insufficient funding has strained our teachers and paraprofessionals for far too long,” Bernal said. “It has created an atmosphere of job insecurity, low morale, burnout and high turnover.”
“Listen to our teachers, listen to our staff, listen to our families,” said Ellen Jedrey-Guidera of South Amherst. “This is what we need, it’s not a want, this is what our students really need in Amherst.”
Town Council will act on June 16 on the full budget, which includes the first year of a three-year process to add seven new firefighters. A recommendation from the Finance Committee is expected in late May.
School Committee Vice Chairwoman Bridget Hynes spoke on behalf of herself and Chairwoman Deb Leonard, concerned that if a budget is approved lower than the 5.85% increase recommended by the panel this will mean sacrificing specialists and cutting interventionists, at a time when there are many students not doing well on MCAS tests.
“In reality this budget is a more dramatic staffing change than many school committee members believe is educationally sound, and particularly it’s built on a compromise between recommended and best practice levels for special education staff, and meeting a target budget,” Hynes said.
Earlier, the Finance Committee posed questions to Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman in writing on several topics, including how the specialists would be staffed in a district with two elementary school buildings, the new Amethyst Brook and the existing Crocker Farm, and the new space for sixth graders at the middle school, known as Chestnut Street Academy.
“There is one music room, one art room, one tech room and one library in Amethyst Brook,” Herman wrote. “The original vision in the MSBA and space planning was a reduction in these specialized classrooms when Amherst went from three to two schools. The plan was for one person for each category — the art, music, STEM and library space were designed with the understanding of one full time staff.”
Herman explained that the March 17 proposal reduced full-time equivalents by 4.5 and aligns with enrollment across buildings, with 550 students at Amethyst Brook, 300 at Crocker Farm and 145 at Chestnut Street. Crocker Farm and Chestnut Street were planned to share specialists, with sixth graders getting instruction during the first two periods in the morning and then Crocker Farm getting instruction the rest of the day.
“This approach maintains student access while reducing duplication of roles in smaller settings,” Herman wrote.
Herman also noted that caseloads for interventionists would be aligned across the schools and coaching would be reduced, with a districtwide math coach providing support across schools.
Sara Johnson, a parent of two children, said she is concenred about cuts to interventionists and special education teachers and that a result will be families leaving the distrct via choice.
“Investing in our schools now is both the responsible and cost-effective choice,” Johnson said. “Failing to do so risks higher long-term costs.”
Allegra Clark, who has a child in Wildwood’s third grade, said she has trouble seeing how the budget values education and equity when schools are losing positions and the unarmed police alternative Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service, or CRESS, is frozen at six positions.
Clark said students in the schools and their needs won’t be met with this budget, and safety concerns in Wildwood, with 70 third graders on the playground and significant incidents taking place, won’t be handled.
“If we are losing more staff positions, we are losing safety for our children, and it’s been pretty critical this year,” Clark said.
“I just can’t say enough about the schools needing more support, not less, right now,” Clark added.
Laura Evonne Streinman, Wildwood art teacher and adviser to the LGBTQIA+ Art Club, said more money is needed to ensure the great building means a functioning school.
“Please listen to the folks who are in the classrooms working with the kids day in and day out,” Steiman said
“We need more funds for our schools so that we can meet the needs of all our students in this day and age, there are definitely more needs to make this possible,” Steinman said.
The budget did receive praise from Sarah Forsaith, president of Amherst Firefighters Local 1764, who called the plan for more staffing a “major step in the right direction” adding that “the Amherst fire department has been operating at a breaking point for far too long.”
“This support sends a clear message that public safety remains a priority in Amherst,” Forsaith said.
