PELHAM — An assessment for the town’s share of the fiscal year 2025 $35.27 million budget for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, a final step in approving a three-community plan for electricity to be supplied by green sources, and purchase of a new medical response vehicle for the Fire Department, are to be decided at annual Town Meeting Saturday.

Action on the 20-article warrant, and a $5.51 million fiscal year 2025 municipal budget that is $256,236, or 4.8% higher, than this year’s $5.25 million budget, begins at 9 a.m. at Pelham Elementary School.

For the regional schools, there will be two separate articles presented. One will be the $1.07 million assessment, that is $60,322, or 6% higher, than this year’s $1.01 million assessment. The other is the formula for calculating the assessment for each of the four member towns, which includes a 6% limit on increases.

Both Shutesbury and Leverett voters adopted that 6% limit when their Town Meetings convened on April 27, reduced from an 8.2% increase that was initially voted by the Regional School Committee. That higher figure would have meant an $82,441 increase in Pelham’s assessment. Amherst Town Council has not yet taken a vote on its assessment.

The Amherst-Pelham Education Association, the union representing teachers, paraeducators and clerical staff, has expressed concerns about the 6% budget and how many staffers who work with children might be lost, with earlier proposals to cut parts of the world language and dance programs, special education and counseling and restorative justice initiatives.

Pelham Select Board Chairman Bob Agoglia said the important question from Pelham’s perspective is whether the regional school administration and Regional School Committee will have a plan for fiscal year 2026 that the four member towns can afford.

Earlier, the Finance Committee recommended against the 8.2% assessment increase and instead recommended the regional schools develop a three-year financial plan that would take into account the loss of federal Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief fund money that has been used to support the budget.

In its report to Town Meeting, the Finance Committee also notes the ongoing challenges of capital needs for the middle and high school buildings and their antiquated systems. Over the next nine years the district will have an estimated $14.7 million in capital needs, with Pelham expected to contribute $824,066 toward those needs. The report adds that school officials will begin preliminary discussions on whether it would be more cost effective to replace the middle or high school buildings.

“The high school does not have central air conditioning and the middle school roof needs to be replaced,” the committee wrote. “These two buildings were designed for about 2,500 students, but the current enrollment is about 1,250.”

Warrant articles

Meanwhile, the $5.51 million fiscal year 2025 budget absorbs some of the ongoing inflationary pressures into the regular budget, rather than paying for these through free cash. There are limited adjustments throughout, mostly related to cost of living adjustments for employees.

The warrant includes a separate article for $213,066 in free cash spending, with the largest amounts for school-related expenses, including $29,311 to pay the assessment for regional capital needs and $25,000 going into a special education reserve account for the elementary school.

Other spending from this article includes $10,000 for road work, $10,000 for boiler maintenance and replacement at the Community Center and $3,800 to repair the base of the steeple at the Pelham Historical Society Museum, as well as $3,500 to cover Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training and $5,000 to update the town code.

A separate $6,850 from free cash will go to buy solar-powered speed limit signs.

Valley Green Energy

Since 2018 Pelham has been working with officials in Amherst and Northampton on launching municipal community choice aggregation. The final approval of the inter-municipal community choice energy organization, known as Valley Green Energy, comes after the three communities signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2022 to engage Mass Power Choice.

“We have collaborated with Northampton and Amherst to create Valley Green Energy, and it was recently approved by the state’s Department of Public Utilities,” Agoglia wrote in an email. “It’s taken years and a lot of work to create Valley Green Energy and to achieve DPU approval.”

A final spending article is $40,000, from the capital equipment stabilization fund, to buy and equip a new medical response vehicle for the Fire Department. That will replacing an existing vehicle.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.