The following statements were read at public comment during School Committee and City Council meetings.
“At this point, I feel shame on our city councilors. You are supposed to represent your residents. Your residents are supposed to be your priority, not the mayor.”
Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
October 2024
“Our District is an ecosystem, with interconnected parts. When one part of the system is harmed, the rest is affected. A reminder, that special education is part of the ecosystem of schools in Northampton. When my son was at Bridge Street, I learned that when his para was absent, and they didn’t have anyone to cover sometimes his special education teachers became his para. When they were with my son, that meant that they could not tend to services for their other students. And vice versa. This was a pattern. It was unfair to educators and students alike. And this year it’s rampant across the District due to staff shortages.
Do most families learn about these and other IEP violations from school or the District? No, there is zero transparency. My son is now at JFK and I asked outright if he had received a particular service on his grid. I was told no, not yet. It was weeks of not getting services as per his IEP. That’s against the law. If I didn’t ask? I never would have known.
When families do learn about these violations, many don’t complain. The District narrative by the administration and even some families is shame “oh they’re trying, don’t be pushy, oh it’s only been a couple of weeks, oh please bear with us” and ultimately we families and our Northampton educators are pitted against one another with fear, division, and silencing tactics. The District has not only allowed this for years, it’s the culture of this District in special education. It dominates. It’s fear based, it’s intimidating, it harms, it divides families and educators, and it needs to change.
I filed a formal complaint with DESE regarding my son’s IEP violation. For every person like me who complains, there are 50 other families who are in the dark about their child’s IEP violations. There are families who don’t know their rights (I didn’t for years), families who don’t want to make waves, and families who are vulnerable and pushing back to the District or the State is a terrifying option, therefore not an option. The District banks on all of this to avoid accountability. Instead focuses on band-aids and one off fixes for those families who happen to complain, while further marginalizing other families, keeping them in the dark and ignoring their children’s rights.
So to everyone here, including the Mayor, Superintendent, our SEPAC liaison and the rest of the School Committee I ask you,
– Will you fight for our special education families?
– Will you step up and push for a cultural change in this District to support our disabled children and their rights in Northampton?
– Will you step up and push for a cultural change in this District to fight for more supports and funding to create positive working conditions for our special education educators? and
– Will you fight to help nurture a healthier public education ecosystem in Northampton, starting with our special education children?
Will you?
I will.
– Middle School Parent, School Committee, 10/10/24
June 2024
“I have brought this up multiple times before. My daughter next year is going to be in a class of 25 students. That class is doubling, 50% compared to this year, and that is 95% larger than the other classes in Massachusetts for second grade. It’s amazing that fact that you cannot add more money to help these students. The students who do really well will be fine. The students who do not so great, they may not be fine, but they might get some support. The students in the middle, they’re going to get lost. They’re going to get completely lost in a class that big.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“I ask the committee again: what is their plan? What is your plan for the expenses that will be created by the mayor’s cuts? Because less than a full gut job is still significant cuts. When the increases in special education costs eat up that savings, what is the plan? When no money miraculously appears from the state, what is the plan? When the cost of ethically and effectively running a school system continues to outpace what the mayor wants it to cost, what is your plan? Because the school system can’t make that plan for you. We are running on a skeleton crew as it is. There’s no fat to trim. We are already doing more with less.
So, what’s the plan? The city is going to have to allocate the funds when DESE comes for violations. The city could allocate the funds now and prevent those increased costs, but it seems pretty clear that theoretical pet projects are more important to you than actual present expenses and obligations. And I don’t understand. I don’t understand how you have the gall to bring up an override . . . I don’t understand how you can bring up an override, refuse to state that we’ll go 100% to the schools, and expect us to support that override.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“There is no deficit, but if you listen to some voices, you’d think the deficit was insurmountable, layoffs and cuts inevitable. The power behind this language and this approach is called the elusory truth effect in psychology—the same concept, in word over and over and over again. Despite evidence to the contrary, people may start to believe you and not challenge you, even though the data is right in front of our faces.
And that data shows that there is no deficit. There’s a lack of support to fully fund our schools. There is money to level fund our schools for next year, but we’re being told, “Oh, you silly civilians, you don’t understand finance,” even though we do have millions in our account. We can’t use it. Yes, you can. Eastampton did to save their schools, but you won’t to save ours. Your priorities are shown, and they don’t reflect the priorities of the community.
We know that when budget cuts happen anywhere in the public sector, the most vulnerable suffer the consequences. This is an equity issue, Northampton. We’re talking about children here in our public school system, a population whose poverty rate is three times that of the city, children whose intersecting identities and needs are more complicated than the general population. It’s within public schools where we can best counter this inequity for children. Cut the budget, you harm the most vulnerable. This is fact. We know this, and this aspect of the cuts has been rendered invisible by the continued narrative of deficit. There is no financial deficit. The deficit instead is in the advocacy for our children and for public education.
The mayor and city council should and can support our schools by pushing for level services funding for next year. You still have time. You have the money. Use it to show your city that your priorities are truly about justice, equity, children, and public education. I imagine those are the exact same issues you’re all going to campaign on in the next election year.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“I continue to be amazed by the grassroots organizing and civic participation that resistance to the mayor’s school austerity plan has generated. For the first time, we are having substantive conversations about the benefits and drawbacks of the fiscal stability plan as a community, and considering how our policies and budget reflect our values. I want to share a few things I’ve realized with great clarity over the past few weeks:
1. The residents of Northampton deeply value public education and want our elected officials to at minimum provide level service funding in the FY25 budget.
2. This process has produced an education voter base that will not disappear after tonight’s meeting.
3. The city of Northampton continually runs surpluses and has no deficit.
4. The fiscal stability plan has been wildly successful in generating cash for savings, capital, and special projects at the expense of adequately funding core city services like education.
5. The fiscal stability plan itself and blindly trusting the previous mayor are what produced the current manufactured fiscal crisis we are in today. Those who retort that we should stop complaining, take our medicine, and simply trust the mayor today have learned nothing.
6. It was political choices that locked up our mountain of cash behind invisible fences, and it is political choices that can open those gates and reconfigure those pastures. What we lack is the political vision or will to rethink our policies in the face of their failure to fund our schools.
7. The mayor and a majority of this council do not have a plan to fix, nor do they want to fix, the city’s inability to fund the operations of Northampton Public Schools. Rather, they would prefer to continue generating excessive amounts of cash for other priorities. The dogmatic fealty to the fiscal stability plan outside of all reason and without any critical distance is astounding.
8. Officials who dismiss inconvenient facts as misinformation sound oddly like another US politician who complained of fake news and promoted alternative facts when confronted with the reality of his choices.
For your own sakes, please stop echoing talking points without doing the actual work necessary to understand the data, policies, state law, and basic accounting terminology. It’s embarrassing.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“I’ve watched and attended several months of community meetings around these budget challenges, and these discussions have created an environment of anger and mistrust. I’ve seen the majority of public comment advocating, at minimum, for a level service budget for the schools. Rather than emphasizing new groundbreaking ideas that this city seems to love to be honored for, this budget is barely covering many legal obligations this current year and is already lacking adequate future development days or workshops for students guiding and allowing practices towards innovative ideas. For example, my son’s math class doesn’t have enough desks unless somebody doesn’t show up that day.
Anyway, I’ve seen fewer folks advocating on behalf of budget cuts to the schools, and as a newer resident of this town, it seems those folks often have a long intertwined history of friendships and connections here. Based on these observations, some letters in the local paper, it does not feel to me that our advocating majority needs are being represented or heard, and that the budget and agendas are being pushed forth anyway.
As an advocate on behalf of my student and the school community as a whole, I do not appreciate our work being ignored. We would like to see adequately funded schools be a priority in the budget. We’ve all seen disturbing behavior from some of our community leaders in these meetings that have been dismissive, rude, patronizing, and at times deliberately misleading to the community and each other. It’s felt more like watching British Parliament. And I’ve seen whispering and mobile phone checking while students and teachers cry and plea for their jobs or supportive services.
. . . In a community that prides itself on reputation, on striving for a just, equitable, diverse town, I will remind us all that being less classist, anti-ableist, and anti-racist is more than just a lawn sign. These cuts are hypocritical. You heard the brave counselors say this will hurt all students, but especially those who have less means, are Black or Brown, or need supportive services. Stop fighting and do the work to actually properly fund the schools . . . these cuts will have devastating effects on young people of Northampton, and they are watching.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“There are a 1,000 signatures on a petition. It represents a much broader community than what’s in this room . . . So just like you are representatives of your community here and you get to vote, the rest of us in here are representatives of our community. . . . And we were standing together as union members and teachers and students and all kinds of folks, local business owners, and we were standing in the heat and demanding that you provide level services to our students. That is the bare minimum.
Northampton is such a wonderful community that I’m really proud to live in. But when we say that our students deserve less than what they’re getting now, which by the way is not what they deserve, that’s a real problem. That’s not a progressive value.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/20/24
“There is a movement among people in town advocating for a fully funded Northampton Public Schools budget, and that maintaining current educational services is one of the most important priorities of the city. Others have been contesting this demand; the refrain is, ‘You can’t fund recurring expenditures with one-time revenues, and you should trust the mayor.’
I want to address the first of these by focusing on the city’s funding of the schools for the last four years. Just over $4 million dollars of school choice reserve funds was used to support the schools’ budget. In the midst of COVID-19, the federal government established the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program to assist local governments with reduced revenue streams from the pandemic’s economic impacts. The city received over $5.2 million of ESSER funding. Together, over $9 million dollars of that money was used in the last four years to support the NPS budget. That, my friends, was one-time money. It has been used to support the recurring expenses of the school department. Those funds allowed the city to finance schools with less of the city’s own recurring revenues. That amount was consequently available to support spending by the city’s other departments. That is, to support other priorities.
But there’s a problem with this, as has been pointed out: using one-time funds to cover recurring expenses is not financially sustainable. Yet, the mayor’s and the city council approved this approach, and in their deliberations about these city budgets, was there a plan to address the problem? Nope, it got kicked down the road. Other city spending priorities were favored, but the dilemma for the schools was unresolved.
Last year, when the mayor added $1.2 million to the school’s budget, she warned about the problem and said it would be worse this year and compounded into the future. But nothing was done to anticipate where we are now. The mayor is the chair of the school committee—why no planning? Why no schools financial strategic planning committee or process? I guess there was a plan: fiscal stability, a AAA bond rating, and the other favored priorities that the mayor and the city council have supported, leaving the schools underfunded and with no plan for correction. Two weeks ago, I was sad; today, I’m mad as hell.
– Northampton Resident, College Professor, City Council 6/20/24
“We don’t have a school deficit in Northampton. We don’t even have a budget problem. We have a representation problem. Many of our elected officials do not represent us; they represent the mayor and her mission to fund projects instead of children.
Sure, after an incredible amount of pressure from constituents, some of you have gained a better understanding of what our schools face with these cuts. For that, I thank you. You’ve lobbed some softball questions . . . but you’ve allowed them to skirt the toughest stuff. You lobbied for certain positions to be restored at certain schools. Now you can say, as some school committee members said at the last meeting, that you did something. And for these things, you may pat yourselves on the back while you pass the weight of the twisted priorities of this mayor onto the much smaller backs of children.
You say you’re sad. You say you’ve endured lots of criticism over the last months. Well, guess what? Criticism comes with the job. We need representatives who can take the heat, who can hear us and act accordingly. We need representatives who see that our city is blessed with cash and that we deserve a say in where that money will go. Somehow we’ve done the research, but you haven’t. Some of you said that you’re not numbers people. Well, there are lots of numbers people in this community who have lots of questions about how this money will be spent.
We need representatives who will ask why future aspirational projects are more important than children right now. The mayor wants to put Northampton on the map. Our schools have already done that. To underfund them will only drive people away. This brings me to my question, which I’ll warn you is not a softball: How does it feel to be a human rubber stamp?
You may see yourselves as the arbiters of logic and reason amongst an emotional constituency, but really you are just her human rubber stamps. We implore you to remember your role, find your curiosity, and stop playing politics. Showing disdain for constituents—toughen up. We need a legacy, not a stain on our city. You may be saying: “this isn’t so easy – I bet you couldn’t do any better.” Well, we will, and I’ll say it again, the votes will speak if you don’t.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“. . . the Special Ed Reserve Fund, which you voted to create and the school committee confirmed, putting $800,000 in, withdrawing $200,000 for F25 is on the table tonight. After this authorization, there is no legal provision for further voter approval as to when or how it is used. The new reserve will be under the joint control of the school committee and the city council, requiring a majority vote by both bodies, taking it out of school district control.
The legal purpose is to fund unanticipated special education spending for rare out-of-district placements. This money cannot be used for anticipated special education expenses, which is more than 99% of what we incur and plan for annually. This fund is an accounting mechanism to park a significant amount of taxpayer money in a low-yield return fund. It can only hold up to 2% of the school district’s budget, which would be about $820,000. Seeding it at nearly its cap seems extraordinary.
The fund is proposed to be annually funded by student Medicaid receipts, taking those monies from school district revenue. . . I’m asking you tonight to use the $200,000 you are going to give the schools as seed money for this fund. Put the other $600,000 in the F-25 school budget where it will do the most good for the most children. Our house is burning; please don’t bring a full bucket of water to the flames. Throw a few spoonfuls on and pull the bucket away.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“First of all, you’re going to hear the word “deficit.” When this happens, I want you to remember that Northampton, in fact, has a surplus. So when you hear “deficit,” I want you to think “underfunding.”
You will hear the word “override,” even as we have enough free cash to avoid an override. So when you hear “override,” I want you to think “free cash.”
You will hear a kind of fear-generating description of the spiral toward a fiscal cliff that’s going to be created by level service funding. . . The next one is kind of tricky; it’s about tone, because you’re going to find yourself, and others have described this, and your fellow members of the Northampton community being treated with dismissiveness, defensiveness, and disdain. When you experience this, look to your left, look to your right, and say to yourself, “The people of Northampton.”
Last, there are some words you are not likely to hear. I didn’t hear them from the city council on Monday. These are some words that you need to hold onto and because they need to fuel our conversation. You need to say to yourselves on a regular basis: children, educators, public education, democracy, values. Our actions should reflect these words.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I’ve been listening to public comments on the school funding for a long time now, and the overwhelming voices are both passionate and reasoned for fully funding the schools. If you represent your constituents, I think you will have to listen to these voices and reconsider the budget. I know there’s only days left, a lot of special meetings, whatever it takes. Monday night’s meeting did not show the council at its best behavior, and I hope I don’t have to vote on the next ballot write in no confidence. No confidence, no confidence, no confidence for everybody in city government. You represent the people or you represent the mayor. Your vote tonight will tell us.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I want to start out by saying, don’t underfund the schools. Don’t cut services. That’s just irresponsible when you don’t have a plan. I have asked multiple times. I think everyone else has as well, asking what exactly is going to be cut, what services are going to be cut, what are we losing? And no one seems to be able to consistently articulate what that is. If you cut without knowing, you are making a mistake or you are very liable to make mistakes. It seems very irresponsible to do.
I also do not see how a city can describe its finances as healthy while also making, again, unplanned, unaccounted for cuts to services across the board, doesn’t matter where it is. The mayor referenced a plan, a two-year plan, um, to work with the school committee to find out how to address budget cuts or address needs. I don’t think that was done. I don’t know the status of it, but I’d love to hear about that. That seems like a reasonable path forward, but it takes a lot of time. It does not make sense to cut in six months or a few months or even a couple of weeks without doing that work.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I chose to live in Northampton because it was famous for its progressive values, right? Since I moved here 14 years ago, I never concerned myself about local politics In spite of having a long history of political activism and serving my community as an elected official, I trusted I was living in a progressively-run city. So why am I active now? Because I became concerned, and the more I paid attention, the more concerned I became. I saw a mayor who ran for office claiming a progressive agenda but instead of proposing fiscal conservatism instead. This is not about being in favor against the mayor. That vote we will take in November next year. All the concerns around this budget are about needs and priorities.
We have a city council who needs to keep the mayor in balance and in check, and ensure oversight based on the needs of the community. And I felt a lack of action on that front. The lack of city council oversight means that concerned citizens like me have to step in and ensure the oversight. And here I am, and here we are, here and across the city. We’re all putting extra time into this because the kids are worth it, right? We just remember that education means emancipation, right? We just celebrated Juneteenth, let’s not forget about it.
As a council please choose the progressive and collaborative path, right. We have 10 more days to work on the needs for this year’s budget and 12 more months to work on the next budget, right. We can work as a community and get it done right.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“At this point, I feel shame on our city councilors. You are supposed to represent your residents. Your residents are supposed to be your priority, not the mayor. You need to fund our schools. There were several years that teachers took 0% raises. I’m also a Northampton Public School employee. At one point, I took five years with a 0% raise – for our schools.
. . . I want to talk about my taxes. My taxes have gone up seven times what I originally paid when I first bought my home in Florence. My house has not gone up seven times in value. We have the sewer tax, the conservation tax, the water runoff fee, and then the tax increases.
There is money there. . . I truly believe there is plenty of money in Northampton. We are supposed to be one of the wealthiest communities here.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I have lived here in Northampton for 24 years. I have paid property taxes for 24 years. Every so often, I have to come here because there’s a story that they don’t have money for schools. The same story, and then what happens is that the times that they have given us an override, that money is being used for something else. Because then if it were used for the schools, then they would have had enough. But this is not happening, and it’s not for the teachers, that’s for sure.
I have three children that graduated from the high school, and they graduated from college, and they did extremely well in college because those teachers are very well licensed and prepared, and they prepare the children very well, and they cannot be ignored. And what happened is that many teachers that come in to apply for positions, if they . . . make more than $60,000 and they have one or two or three teacher’s licenses, then they don’t even interview them. How do I know that? There’s a website for Northampton, and tons of people that live here and pay taxes like I do, and all these people do, they talk about the experiences that they have.
I was really surprised when I read multiple times, I don’t know exactly how many of you agreed to it, but $3 million were paid for a church next to Smith. For months and months and months, nothing is being done to that. Okay. I know because I drive by there every day.
I expect people to please look at your finances and take care of these teachers and kids, because we cannot continue to throw money away and use it for other things . . . pet projects . . . instead of for the schools.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I want to echo some comments that people have made about the sort of quality of . . . thought . . . that’s gone into what’s happening right now. The only way we have to know the quality of what you’re thinking is your words, right? So we can’t look into your head, we can’t see that you have a really great process. You are telling us that you have thought about it, you’ve thought about it a lot, but you don’t use words that demonstrate what you’ve thought about, why you’ve rejected it, except for these really just very general statements. It’s not good.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“So, in this educated community, as people stand here and have to give their names and what they do for a living and their backgrounds, I’m not sure whether those things are important. But in this educated community, our kids can’t read. Look at the data, and you will see that a large number of children in this community cannot read. And of course, our most vulnerable students, our Black and Brown students, are more impacted by this. Watch the ‘Right to Read’ film, and you know, we’re a perfect example of a community where the White students, their families will pay, and they’ll get that reading instruction, and they’ll learn to read. And the rest of our students who don’t have those resources will not learn how to read, and they’ll end up in prison. And that’s from a community like Northampton.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/20/24
“I am speaking as the owner of local businesses State Street Fruit store and Cooper Corner . . . Northampton Public Schools need to be fully funded. It should not be an option to take cuts from the schools. It’s absolutely necessary to use available funds to fully fund our schools. Our educators are a foundation of the town, and they educate our children. Because of the decades of underfunding, we have your so-called deficit. Spend the necessary funds to fix this and fully fund our underfunded schools. Consider it a capital expense. We have to consider those things in the stores, do some unnecessary fixes that don’t make the beautification of the stores. It’s something is necessary to fix, and this is something we need to do to fund our students and our teachers.
– Owner, Coopers Corner & State Street Fruit Store, City Council 6/20/24
“The schools do not have deficits. What the schools do have is insufficient funding, or put differently, they have a deficit of sufficient funding. The second comment: budgets reflect public priorities. The city’s balanced budget requirement constrains choices about priorities. Choices have been made that reflect important priorities but that discount the importance of public schools. This is not a new problem. Over the last 30 years, the schools have frequently been required to lay off staff. Last year, the mayor warned there would be issues for the school budget. Some members of the school committee and the public sounded the alarm and cautioned that the school committee, the mayor, and the city council needed to develop a process to confront this problem. But now here we are, with layoffs looming for the schools.
Earlier this year, millions of dollars of the city’s certified surplus funds were allocated to four stabilization funds: fiscal stability, capital projects, climate, and the general catch-all one. These were choices about priorities. The city has spent over $2 million on planning for the redesign of Main Street and more than $3 million for the purchase of the Baptist Church. Those were choices about priorities. And now the city finds itself with another important priority being underfunded. That is the result of a process that has undercut the obvious and gargantuan value that the community places on its responsibility for educating its children.
– NPS Grandparent, Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“The school departments in Northampton don’t have a deficit. They put a request out to the mayor for funding, and it was denied. That’s not a deficit; that’s an unfunded request. Language is important, and language can be manipulated.
The language of scarcity—revenue, expenditures, deficit, and budget—has dominated the city council and mayor’s narratives, with rarely a mention of children, students, teachers, paraprofessionals, and education. Our schools have been dehumanized in the city council and mayor’s narratives. NASE and community members have reunited our schools in the last few weeks of organizing and reminded us all that there is enough to go around.
Now we hear from some that this latest budget should be pushed through to be humane to those educators. How profoundly disingenuous. Language is important. The language of scarcity and the refusal to use one-time funds because of some potential for future deficit have been weaponized in the last few months, throwing these educators under the bus. These are people whose livelihoods have been potentially severed and whose labor and love in our schools will be greatly missed and not replaced, leaving our students with the biggest deficit—especially our most vulnerable children who rely on our public schools every single day for a range of supports and resources.
This is an equity issue. Delay the budget, fight for a level service budget, and to quote a man from before, “cut the existing fat, not our schools.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“I am also frustrated that we are endlessly lectured about fiscal responsibility. As noted earlier, we spent $3 million on a dilapidated building to house a department that’s 50% grant-funded, that can’t do the work it was set up to do, and there’s no plan on how much it’s going to cost or where we’re going to get the money to renovate it. Yet, we’re told we need to make cuts. It’s morally unacceptable.
I hope next year’s budget is the last budget this mayor has a chance to put forward, and I urge anyone who doesn’t like what they’re seeing on the council, the school committee, or in the mayor’s administration to run for office. Recruit your friends and get ready because there’s a contract fight coming up and another budget that will be coming up. It doesn’t end today, and this compromise, if we want to call it that, is the bare legal minimum required to run our schools. It is morally reprehensible.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“Our school budget is $2 million short of level services. I’m proud tonight to speak in support of our public schools, our amazing teachers, and school employees who do absolutely exceptional work in some of the most important jobs in our community. I have been really disappointed to attend hours of City Council meetings and listen to the mayor and the superintendent chastise them. Before their most recent contract, our school employees had the lowest wages in the Commonwealth when compared with districts of our size and remain dramatically underpaid for the work they do.
When my wife and I moved to Western Massachusetts, we bought our home in the Northampton School District because we’re queer and trans, and we wanted a community where we would be safe and accepted. We wanted to participate in our kid’s school, sit and laugh with other parents at the Better World picnic, make a chalk mural at the PTO dance party, and volunteer next week at field day. We have been so lucky to join the community at Bridge Street. To hear the mayor describe the desperate public outcry as a “moving experience” to the Hampshire Gazette while she defunds our schools just doesn’t sit right with me.
Teachers have been finding out their employment status at City Council meetings, crying during public comment, and begging for level services funding so they can be safe and effective at work. Our schools are not greedy; they are not at a deficit; they are underfunded, period. This acrimony over what should be our City’s highest spending priority is not the community we want to be building. I hope that the City Council tonight can reject this catastrophic austerity budget and bridge the $2 million funding gap. This is not just a dedicated and involved school community’s issue. This is a family’s issue, a racial justice issue, an income inequality issue, a worker’s issue. We have a strong coalition of constituents and voters, and we are here watching you. Hundreds of people on Zoom week after week are asking you to have the courage to do the right thing and pass a level services budget for our schools.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“We moved here four years ago from New York City . . . When we moved here, the assumption was, of course, the schools must be amazing up there. How could they not be? It’s the Pioneer Valley. There are five colleges of higher education, 38,000 students in higher education. I don’t know how many people work in the colleges, but it has to be the number one employer in the valley. This is like an epicenter of higher learning. Massachusetts is ranked number one or three, depending on where you look, in education in the country. It’s the richest country in the world, still hopefully for a while. We’ll see. How could it not be the most amazing public school system?
I hope it will be. I’ll find out next year. I’ve heard great things. I know there are going to be great things. I’m so excited. But then when I saw the paper a couple of weeks ago, and it’s not the first time that I’m not really 100% paying attention to it, I was like, “Whoa, budget fights over public education? Who? What? Are you kidding? No, you got to be kidding me.” They got to be fighting over how much money to throw at schools. This is freaking Northampton. This is the Pioneer Valley. This is an educational epicenter, and we’re talking about budget cuts? Where are we, Iowa? Louisiana? Mississippi? I’m sorry, maybe not Iowa. I’m talking about Mississippi and Alabama. Those people are scraping for fun runs. This is Massachusetts. You ever see Spinal Tap? Remember the joke? All their concerts were cut in Boston. They were like, “Don’t worry, it’s not a big college town.” This is a college town. This is an education town. The economy in this town is probably built on education. Take away education from Northampton and all around here, what do you have? Cannabis shops and homeless shelters.
Education should be funded to the max. Look for the money, find it. I don’t care about potholes. I’ll drive through a pothole to deliver my kid to school.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“My fourth grader has been receiving services since first grade during the pandemic. She has been significantly behind in reading and math for the last several years. This year, she was able to catch up in reading and finally does not need services anymore. She can actually read, enjoys reading, and loves the interventionist responsible for her success.
However, the interventionist for math . . . my daughter is not receiving this year because there’s not enough money for math interventions. My daughter is very behind in math, struggles with it, hates it, and feels bad about herself. She comes home and rips up her math papers, saying she spaces out in class.
My child feels bad about herself despite having two parents, being upper middle income, both educated, giving her lots of love and support. We will pay for a math tutor for her to catch up, which costs $85 an hour. But what about low-income students, those on IEPs, or Black and Brown students? Not providing these services is a form of systemic racism.
Behavior interventionists are the glue holding our schools together. Without them, things fall apart, people become disregulated, and the class becomes disregulated, slowing down or halting learning. We should fully fund our schools this year. Use the rainy day money to support our schools and go hard at the state to solve this problem. If you want to be anti-racist, fund the schools and go after Chapter 70 collectively.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“As others have said, underfunding our schools is a racial justice and disability justice issue. Over the past six and a half years, my son has been in Northampton Public Schools. Title I, special education teachers, and classroom teachers have helped him get through this system that’s not designed for neurodivergent students, students with disabilities, or students with mental health issues.
My son has an IEP, and if special ed teachers are let go or involuntarily transferred, many of the teachers directly involved in special ed may be affected. The most obvious and legitimate concern is that students won’t receive their legally mandated accommodations. But there’s more to it. Special ed teachers benefit all students in more ways than I can convey, but I’ll give you one example:
At Bridge Street School, my son’s special ed teacher ran a writing workshop in collaboration with his classroom teacher, which led to the publication of regular literary magazines. They were awesome. My son went from declaring himself a bad writer to being excited about writing, and he never called himself a bad writer again.
Not only have the teachers worked hard to ensure that my son is learning what he needs to learn, they’ve also worked hard to minimize the stigma associated with learning disabilities. Accommodations aren’t enough; special ed teachers work best when students don’t feel stigmatized and when special teachers work closely with their classroom teachers. But that’s not going to be able to happen if these teachers are let go and the others are spread too thin.
This is a disability justice issue. There’s plenty to celebrate about our schools, but they already feel strain, as so many people have already stated. Every time I go in there for an IEP meeting, every single person’s working so hard. The last thing any of our kids need are teachers who are stretched too thin or demoralized by a system that doesn’t value their work.
The argument that we need to “right-size” not only presumes that we are over-supporting students at an adequate level, but it also ignores the impact of the pandemic. Please find a way to level fund services in our Public Schools.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“My family moved to the Pioneer Valley 3 years ago from New York City, and I taught in a classroom with 27, then 28, and then 29 kindergarteners. It was incredibly challenging. The reason I am sharing a comment tonight is I hear council members and some school members expressing concern for those teachers with pink slips, and I feel that deeply. I cannot imagine what it would be like right now to have my job in limbo.
I hear a desire from those counselors and school members to retain those teachers and know that they are excellent teachers. As a teacher who has taught in a classroom of 29, what I’d like to present is that if our goal is to retain teachers and show them that they are valued and needed, funding the schools and making sure that teachers have what they need to serve their students — like class sizes that allows them to serve their students, tier 2 interventionists, behavior specialists — that allows teachers to meet the needs of students, that is how you retain teachers, and that is how you care for your teachers and are humane to your teachers.
– Elementary Parent, City Council 6/6/24
“What I think is important to note is that schools still seem to be struggling. I know many teachers in Northampton Public Schools who are running Amazon wish lists, asking their friends and family for donations, and spending their own money. If they get a raise, that money goes right back into their classrooms. Bathrooms aren’t open because of understaffing.
I’ve never heard a teacher or any school employee say, “Wow, I have so much free time.” Instead, they are giving their time to multitask, to complete their own work, and they are really struggling. So, I’m trying to figure out what will be cut or what will happen to those teachers when they don’t have the funding they need even to do what they’re doing now. We are talking about level services, but the level services are barely the minimum. I’m still trying to figure out even what the budgets are.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“Mayor Sciarra – Three years ago, while you were running for mayor, you addressed the need to equitably fund education in Northampton by identifying and filling gaps left in state and federal funding for school-related services. I want to read your statement as reported by The Shoestring and accessible online:
“Beyond what has already been pledged by the federal government and the state, we must also identify the gaps. For example, not all families have had access to the same educational, social, and emotional opportunities during the pandemic. For students who have fallen behind, we must provide opportunities for them to catch up and make sure that the students most in need get extra help in a way that works for them. That means we have to keep investing in our public schools and make sure every enrolled Northampton student is given the personalized attention they need for an equitable education.”
While we were receiving federal money for COVID relief, you said we needed to go beyond what was pledged. Now, to attain the goals of providing an equitable education for all students, we must go beyond what you have pledged in your most recent budget proposal.
I am here to reiterate what so many speakers have already said: we still have gaps that were created during the pandemic. Some have narrowed, but many still exist in enlarged numbers and are very wide. Because of this, a full force of educators and para-educators is essential to providing equitable access to academic and social-emotional learning. There is nothing more important, nothing more urgent, and nothing more fiscally responsible than providing these in-school supports so that we can form and maintain strong, positive relationships with students, encourage and assist them as they struggle, and guide them towards success going forward.
The alternative is pennywise and pound foolish. We all know the social cost, as well as the concurrent financial cost, we may have to pay when we fail to meet the needs of our students: unemployment, homelessness, dependency upon social services, and encounters with the legal system, etc. Let’s not make this mistake.
Mayor Sciarra, I ask that you go beyond your recent adjustment to the budget and fund level services as recommended by our school committee. This is crucial to the well-being of so many of our students in the Northampton community.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“I pretty much feel exactly the same way as everyone else. I have to say, I’m really sick of the way our city is run. You say we’re reducing parking to save it for the people that come into the city. Let’s make the city nice for all these people who come in, but our students live here now. Our teachers live and teach here now. They deserve the time, attention, and money because they’re here now.
I think we’re just wasting money on people who are coming into the city when you have citizens right in front of you who deserve your time and respect. I don’t know how anyone could possibly go about their day voting against this or voting for anything less than level service, knowing that they’re hurting the education of Northampton’s children. I’m just so frustrated—it literally makes me shake because I’m so frustrated that you could possibly do this to our children.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“In 2017, the Northampton Public Schools went full inclusion and decided not to take any of the advice about how much money or staff that would take. The schools tanked, and famously, it was a disaster. The kindergartners were biting each other, the third graders were going home, teachers were getting injured, and people were pulling their kids out of the schools right and left. This was because the WINS model hadn’t been adequately funded for what they had promised they would do.
Every year after that, there were little corrections trying to fix this problem. My understanding is that we’ve just about got it right. Now, all of a sudden, we’re in the same fight again because the same proposal and the same staff cuts are being put in place again, presumably under the impression that this time it will work.
Breaking our schools once was bad enough; breaking them twice takes incompetency to a new level. It’s not like we don’t know exactly what happens if we do this. Don’t do this. We spend so much less on our schools than comparable communities. We should be talking about how to increase our school budget by 30, 40, 50% to compete with comparable and comparably affluent communities and what they’re spending on their schools and what their kids are getting. Instead, we’re talking about breaking our schools back to where they were in 2017-2018.
What I’m hearing from this is that the mayor and the superintendent are locked together in a death march. I don’t know why they’re doing this, but I would sincerely urge you, if you care about them as well as if you care about the communities that are going to be impacted by this, to pause the death march. It is possible that, given two weeks to consider what is going on, they will change their minds. Don’t let them self-destruct because they’re taking us down with them.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“Why are we trading buildings for people? Why do you think that the teachers get too much? Why did you use these people right after the pandemic just so you can discard them later? Why are you not looking for money somewhere else? Why isn’t School Committee in charge of making full budget decisions? That’s the big question.
I am not fortunate enough to send my children to a charter school, and I know that the level of education will go down. I’m a teacher’s kid. I know as a parent, I can assure you, whenever my children came home with a problem, it was due to not enough staffing in the school. I also heard that one of the school counselors said they didn’t opt in not too long ago because that’s not what their constituents wanted. That is not true. That is not so.
You hear all of us upset people. Do you think we’re upset just for fun? It’s our children we’re talking about, their education.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“I’m an admissions counselor at a local college. I’m not here representing the views of my employer, but speaking from my personal experience. We receive incredible applicants every year from Northampton Public Schools. I got to spend almost an hour interviewing one of them this year, and the reason that those applicants are so strong is because of all of the work that our school workers and our educators put into working with them on a shoestring budget. An earlier speaker mentioned the amount of funding going towards the police department. I learned today that the city has spent over $60,000 in the past few years on audits of police misconduct. We should all be afraid of a world where we invest in policing our students but not in educating them, and that is the world where the mayor’s budget is driving us towards. Toward that end, I’m asking you topass a level services budget with no reductions in staffing that serves our teachers, our students, and our communities.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“In a much better world, I would be here to speak in favor of a massively increased school budget for Northampton. It’s our commitment in Massachusetts to our educational system and, more importantly, to the education workers who make that possible, that makes me proud to live here. As it is, I came here to speak in support of level funding with no reduction in staffing for this year. I just have to say how disappointing it is for me as a resident to have to come back here and be fighting for this again. My friends and neighbors are educators, and I am a beneficiary of their work.
From where I stand as a resident interacting every day with the educators, students, and workers who benefit from these schools, the sacrifice that even a minor reduction in funding and staffing entails is staggering. And for what in return? It is disappointing enough that this city always finds money for its police before securing a future for its schools. At the absolute least, the bare minimum that we should expect from our government is the ability to maintain the funding and keep these jobs. I regret that this is the only option in front of us, but the only acceptable option for us as residents is for a level budget with no reduction in funding or staffing for this year.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“I would like to reinforce the concept that schools don’t have a deficit, but rather the town has a deficit. It would be like me telling my son he has a deficit with me because he doesn’t pay me rent. It’s just ridiculous.
I would like to underline also the disservice done to the employees of Northampton Public Schools by defunding our school by $3 million below what the superintendent originally proposed in December, leading to excessive pink slips and creating uncertainty. What do you think a teacher can teach the kids without knowing whether they have a job or not? It’s a disservice to them and the kids. On top of that, we also defund by $2 million from what the school committee asked for.
I also would like to point out the disservice the budget is doing to the citizens because you are defunding the school, cutting services, and asking for more money for the proposition 2 1/2. The proposition funds more money, but you can’t cut services. It’s just a disservice, and the beauty of democracy is that the citizens will remember what you stand for and what you vote for.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6/6/24
“Disappointing isn’t a strong enough word to express how it feels to see children begging our government for adequate funding for their schools. The fact that we’re putting them in that position is pretty appalling, especially when the police budget is almost $7 million this year . . . The city’s budget is a direct reflection of its values and its priorities.
I’m a family doctor. I moved back east from California 29 years ago . . . When we decided to move back east, it was entrusted to me by my husband and for our two young children to decide where to live. I was convinced, after hearing about the excellent public schools here — which is very important to me — that Northampton is where we wanted to buy a home, and to move here, and we did.
The schools have been excellent. I believe strongly in public education. I could afford a private school for my kids. I purposely did not want that, neither me nor my husband, because it’s an issue of social equity. It’s an issue of not wanting our kids to experience othering, so that they are together with all kids of all socioeconomic levels, different every color, every, you name it, all together. That’s what prevents racism and hatred, and it’s a basic core value, democratic value.
When I came here, after I was here, I voted for the mayor. After experiencing her support for another democratic principle, my husband was an underpaid mental health worker who was on strike here, and she was on the council and voted with others to support the strike for a living wage. I thought, to me, that was a way of showing that she and this government support democratic values.
When this school issue came up here, I was really shocked . . . We are a wealthy community. We have the money, there’s no question. It’s a matter about priorities and being honest here . . . We need level funding at the very least.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 6-6-2024
May 2024
“The language of scarcity dominates public education everywhere, Northampton is not unique. The language of competition, of cannibalizing and taking from one group or resource to support another, is also prevalent across public education conversations. And we, the masses, stand at the bottom of the hill, watching those at the top repeat this language over and over. Even some of us repeat it, and it divides us as we fight for scraps.
The language is manufactured, and it serves the push for privatization. When you use this language, you reinforce a status quo that supports neoliberalism, which further guts public education while lining the pockets of private institutions and groups, harming the public and especially the most marginalized and vulnerable children among us. Some districts in the Commonwealth have shown fortitude and creativity by challenging such language, finding ways to support education. For example, right next door in Easthampton – those districts are amazing and should inspire this City Council to stand on the correct side of history during this pivotal budget moment. They should inspire this city council to work collaboratively as a collective to support our children, our schools, and the diverse ways our teachers and staff nurture our children every single day—from reading, writing, and arithmetic, to social, emotional, nutritional, psychological, disability, and safety needs that have become more and more important in the last few years. Our public schools are vital to our community and to our humanity.
Two immediate ways the city council can do this, do the right thing: push back against the gutting of public education while private institutions grow under a neoliberal veil, is to opt-in and to revive the pilot program started almost a decade ago that fell flat, allowing resources that are available and in some cases abundantly so – to be used for our children and their public educations.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“I continue to see city, state, and national government misprioritize, and I do not support the associated layoffs, reassignments, and other cuts in the mayor’s budget . . . There’s no more essential service than public education. Specifically, our city can fund police directing traffic at construction sites, but we cannot afford Math Interventionists or adequate Guidance Counselors? My tax dollars fund weapons of war, when our Bridge Street children did not have a school librarian for most of this school year? A richly textured, compassionate, and supportive school environment is not incidental and must be appropriately funded, and our children deserve this gift for their futures. It’s an equity issue like the second gentleman who spoke in person indicated. Appropriately funded public education is a priority in your community. Please, please prioritize public education.
The current school budget as proposed by the Mayor is problematic. Cutting already strapped services will have egregious consequences for our children and adolescents, as well as the community of teachers and staff who support them and deserve more than a living wage. I plead with you to work together and solve this apparent budgetary crisis without shortchanging Northampton Public Schools.
This is a problem created by adults, and our children should not be burdened with the consequences of our elected officials’ inappropriate prioritization or fiscal mismanagement from years ago.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“I think that our public school system needs a fair budget, bigger than what the mayor is proposing. It’s actually kind of ridiculous what she’s proposing. When I moved here, I thought the school system was great, and I have been shocked at how underfunded it is.
You come here thinking that it’s this quaint city with all these amenities, and yet our children can’t even get a good education. They’re below national averages in so many areas. Not to the teachers’ fault—they just don’t have the resources. Currently, my daughter is in a class that the whole class has had to move out of the classroom and stop learning when a high-needs student needs help, which is fine. But she is in a class that’s going to be up to 25 students next year if we lose a teacher, they just won’t have the resources for all the high-needs students to get the help that they need and continue teaching the other students what they need.
It’s appalling, actually—all this money is being spent on downtown Northampton, and meanwhile, the new light fixtures, the paint is peeling, the weeds are growing, no one’s taking care of anything. They’re spending money as if we want all these new shiny things when all we want is a good education for our children and for their future. And I think that they deserve it.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“Basically, I moved to western mass 17 years ago and I chose to live in Northampton for the last 14 years and start a family here because I was told it was a progressive town with good school system. Right? It doesn’t feel like that anymore. Before moving to the US, I was actually elected as a town councilor in a city that was about three times the size of Northampton. I understand how budgeting works. Also, for business, it’s a difficult process. There are a lot of moving parts, but we have other options.
I think it’s imperative, especially for a town like Northampton, to find the correct resources for the kids. Because, again, we want to keep this town to be progressive with a good school system. Otherwise, what are the alternatives for citizens like me? Either looking at charter school, where I come from, is unthinkable because the school system is completely funded from the nation. Same for the environment, same for healthcare, right? So we all want to live amongst healthy people and a healthy environment with educated people. It’s in everybody’s interest.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“I’m aghast that the city council does not have more input into the school budget. The school committee has already voted 8 to 1. Most of the discussion I’ve been following around stabilization accounts looks like an elaborate shell game. I am not in favor of doing something for the sake of doing something. Being a creature of habit.
As to former Mayor Narkewicz’s recent op-ed in The Gazette, I can only say thank you for your service. That was then; this is now. Part of now means holding large property-owning entities in Northampton responsible for paying their fair share of taxes. Smith College and Cooley Dickinson come to mind. To not opt in is, in my opinion, to play the functional equivalent of submitting to what they had to do in Holyoke on their school committee, submitting to a receiver, which I personally experienced defending some of our members in Holyoke. There, the school committee is largely irrelevant and defers to one office, the receiver. Northampton is better than that. Any part of a functioning democracy needs an informed citizenry. Being informed does not start after K to 12; it starts during K to 12. There is no greater role in a society than being a teacher. I urge you to honor the school committee by opting in and supporting the next generation of our citizenry.
– High School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“We’ve read and heard a few times, and someone mentioned it here tonight, that in nearly 50 years, the city has never had to make a decision like this. I just want to remind everyone that part of the reason we’re in this situation is because of a pandemic that we haven’t experienced in nearly 100 years. A once in a century global, tragic crisis. In crises like these, that’s the right time to spend those rainy day funds that we have. We all know the trauma that led to, on so many levels, including health, and it impacted our kids—the very kids that are now going to be impacted again if these massive cuts happen. This isn’t something where we just look at the numbers; this is something we need to be much more creative, much more innovative, and much more strategic about. From what we’ve heard over the past year, our city has known about this situation for a number of years. Why wasn’t some sort of collaborative working group put together between the school committee, the city, school officials, educators, and the public? Why wasn’t this formed years ago? Where’s the leadership there? Or even last year, to meet regularly, to hold multiple meetings—town hall meetings, community meetings—to answer questions, brainstorm ideas, research, and narrow down actual solutions?
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“I absolutely don’t understand how this is even a question about cutting teachers when we already don’t have enough teachers as it is. I come from a country where we did have 30 students in the classroom, and what it ends up being is – there’s just not enough time for the teacher to concentrate on all 30 students. There just isn’t. So you end up with students who are very good and successful, and students who are not, and that is very unfortunate that we even consider that, so I urge you to opt in on this matter.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“I think this issue resonates for us because we find that we support the town’s efforts to improve access. My son uses a wheelchair, so it’s close to home for us. There is money that needs to come from the same pot, I think, to improve accessibility in our city. There’s also money that ultimately comes from this same pot that is vital to support his special education needs and other special education needs of students in Northampton schools. I feel like it has been suggested that those two are at odds, and I don’t agree with that. I feel like that is a false choice, and we have been presented an argument that we have to choose one or the other. We have to choose level services or we have to choose ADA compliance. We have to choose level services or we have to choose funding for housing that is affordable in the city. I would like to pose it that these arguments are meant to scare us towards austerity, and that feels manipulative and wrong. Instead, I think that the City Council should vote to extend the amount of time that they have to work on solutions for our budget shortfalls that include all of the very valid and important expenses that we are trying to fund as a city.
– Elementary School Parent, City Council 5/16/24
“We can’t just cancel students or postpone the support they need. Once that support is gone, it can’t be brought back. It’s not that simple. I have ADHD and multiple learning disabilities. Without support, the only thing I connected with in high school was drugs and alcohol. I barely showed up and I barely graduated. Nothing but dumb luck kept me from draining your tax dollars in a correctional facility. Five years later, I went to a community college where I practically lived in their support lab and connected with the arts. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, pulled out of the tailspin, and got a better job. Due to the shaky start, I had to keep plugging along until at 45 I got my first job as a Systems Engineer. Without that support staff, I never would have passed the required math exam for graduation. No graduation, no degree, no future.
They didn’t coddle me; they gave me the tools and guidance I needed, and I worked my tail off. Because I didn’t have that support earlier, we all missed out on a quarter-century of me paying Systems Engineer-level taxes. These people are worth their weight in gold. This is an investment in our children we cannot afford to miss. When I passed that exam, the support staff celebrated like I was their own kid. These people deserve our respect and gratitude, and they sure have mine.
Thank you for all you do, and Godspeed on balancing the budget, you’re appreciated. That job, it paid for my Bachelor’s in Network Engineering. Summa Cum Laude. It never would have happened without that support staff. None of it. Level service funding for our schools, please.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I don’t have kids in the schools, and my grandchildren won’t be students here. But I am here to talk about the school budget and the threat of significant service cuts. Universal free public education is foundational to a democratic society, and it provides the possibility of social advancement in a country where one’s success is largely dependent on the zip code you live in and who your parents are. It did for me.
One of the things I’ve noticed about Northampton is there is a lot of talk about equity. Lots of talk. But so far, that talk has been missing from the discussion about school funding. According to the U.S. Census, Northampton is about 80% white with a poverty rate of 11.3%. But the student population in Northampton schools are much poorer and much browner than the town as a whole. According to the State Department of Education, 68% of the kids in schools are white, and over 31% are low-income—almost three times the rate of the city as a whole. In addition, over 40% of children are high needs, meaning they need more personalized attention. These children are the most vulnerable population in Northampton. So, if equity is really important, we would discuss the need first, before we talked about money. Will Northampton leaders act for equitable solutions? Will you really place the budget burden on these children? I guess we’ll see. Like Joe Biden likes to say, show me your budget and I’ll show you your values.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“On the topic of the school budget, I just wanted to say something to people who have said the schools need to live within their means. We’re not asking for limos, champagne, vacations, or anything superfluous. We’re asking for a level services budget. The cost of education has been rising for a long time. This has many causes, including unfunded mandates from the state and federal government. We got by for decades in Northampton mainly by underpaying our staff. Now that we are doing better with that, we can’t turn around and make cuts to our schools in order to balance the budget. It’s not the right thing to do. We need to come together and find solutions. I can’t do that part in two minutes, but I’m here for the conversation.
Cutting teachers, counselors, and other school staff is not the answer. It will make the problems worse as we lose particularly special, talented staff, have larger class sizes, and reduced services, which is likely to drive enrollment down.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I’m here to speak about prioritizing children and families, about excellent schools and vibrant neighborhoods as recognized and critical factors in attracting families with young children to a city. I’m speaking even as children and whole families are being slaughtered in Gaza, close to 15,000 killed by Israeli forces and 70% of schools destroyed. I’m speaking as a former school committee member, three times elected to an at-large seat beginning in 1991, in a time when Northampton was a dynamic and happening place, when people my age and in my profession—a preschool teacher—and my husband, a kindergarten teacher, could buy a house. Those days are long gone. Gone is affordable housing, replaced by high-end housing that is and will attract older couples in retirement. Gone are the downtown shops where you could buy everyday things you needed and even things you didn’t need. Now we’re spending many millions of dollars on Main Street for the leisure class—your living room, they tell us—while neighborhoods across the city are suffering from the negative impact of zoning laws that allow oversized, inappropriate infill. Longtime residents’ concerns have been shunted aside. Many can’t afford to stay, and developers are making out like bandits, including Eric Suher, who just walked away with $3 million for the Resilience Hub.
Despite all of this, we’re told the current budget difficulties are not the result of wrong priorities. We’re told to be still and accept or ignore the budgetary, legislative, and planning department decisions that have brought us to this point, and then we’ll be asked to support yet another override. Somehow, the social contract whereby city government works for the benefit of the people, the children, and youth who elect them, even if they don’t vote – and pay their salaries, seems broken. Somehow, the Mayor and certain elected officials feel they can disenfranchise residents and then expect our goodwill and commitment to children will rescue them with an override. There’s something terribly wrong with this picture. And finally, I publicly apologize—I hissed. Charter schools are an issue, and I apologize.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I’m coming from a bit of a different place. I don’t have kids in the Northampton Public Schools. I don’t even have kids at all, and I don’t plan on it. But I feel compelled to ask you to listen to parents, teachers, and the kids themselves – because while I don’t have kids in NPS, my life is deeply impacted nonetheless – because schools are central to a community. I have friends who are teachers, I have friends who are parents, I’ve met some of these amazing students, and they’re all impacted by a reduction in services and it’s all negative.
When we’re talking about educational staff, I do want to say we have dedicated educational professionals in our schools being told that they may not have positions. And these are Northampton residents, they’re our neighbors, they’re our community members, and damaging cuts like this aren’t new. Former counselor and current School Committee member Foster talked about receiving pink slips as what pushed her out of education. It damages morale and it adds to additional, almost certainly uncompensated work that the teachers who remain will do because they care about the children in this community.
There’s so much focus on blame. Um, there were City Councilors who were saying that other committees have to take the heat, that city officials are trying to pass the buck. But our city has elected all of you not just to take blame, but to really use your knowledge, your skills, and your creativity to find solutions to the big problems and to involve the residents of the city when you need more ideas and more help.
I would love, especially those with deep knowledge of the budget constraints, to instead of giving municipal Daddy lectures, get into creative ways to find acceptable solutions that do not undercut the city’s values for the sake of a credit. I firmly believe there are solutions for this and that the mayor, with the help of the City Council and community, can find novel ways to fund schools and the services they provide. I’ve heard a lot about our amazing credit rating to provide lower interest rates but nothing about using that credit rating to borrow to cover our budget while we do the hard work of consolidation and efforts to realign our schools.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“Considering all options for our school, in my opinion, allows for the time and space to consider all possibilities for supporting our schools, our teachers, our counselors, and ultimately Northampton students. These students are still recovering from the educational and emotional impacts of the pandemic, so I ask you to please vote yes and opt in to provide more time to consider all options for funding our schools.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I’m the parent of an adult child with disabilities, and it took not just what my son needed in terms of his IEPs and his special needs and everything like that, but it took a lot of meetings, and the fighting itself took me out of the job market. As a single mom, it became very expensive for the economy for me to be able to get my son what he needed. I am also an adult who is graduating from college this weekend, thank you. It wouldn’t have taken me so long, I think, if I had had my needs met while I was in a small, white town on its way up. I think if I had had what I needed for special education, it would have been different.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I looked at a chart from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue that lists Northampton’s local receipts, which consist of revenue other than property taxes. This includes excise taxes, cannabis taxes, hotel and meal taxes, etc. The chart shows that for the past six years, this revenue has been underestimated by millions of dollars. The underestimated amount for 2023, last year, was $5.5 million. Based on the state auditor’s third-quarter report, it looks like this year will turn out to be similarly underestimated.
That seemingly excess money then gets moved into stabilization funds that are not used to pay city expenses. This means we don’t need to take money from the existing stability funds or other departments or use one-time money. We just need to use our yearly local revenue, not real estate taxes, to fund our schools. I’m asking the city to stop moving seemingly extra money into stabilization accounts that are already well above state-recommended reserves and to use this yearly local income to fund our schools. I’m asking the City Council to opt in and then approve the budget that the school committee sent to them. This will maintain our current quality of education in Northampton.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I go to school at Teachers College, Columbia University, where I study curriculum and teaching. My focus is on critical disability studies. From that framework, I would like to offer a brief point. I’m noticing that much of the public comment has been from paraprofessionals, special education teachers, and tiered support specialists, and I was a paraprofessional myself. I just want to offer that this support is not only essential, but I think we often think of it as something that is just for students who we identify as disabled or needing extra help in school, so it’s kind of just for a very small portion of students. But it’s actually a racial justice issue.
Black, brown, and Indigenous students have historically, in this country, been very overrepresented in special education categories. Without this extra support that would be cut, this overrepresentation and the gap between their white counterparts will very much grow. Cutting paraprofessionals, special education teachers, and tiered supports is a disability justice issue and very much a racial justice issue. I really worry what this means for Northampton’s understanding of a democratic vision that values diversity and access in every sense of the word. I really think that opting in is an exciting step towards that just democratic vision that I think a lot of us are really trying to realize.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but someone else just said something that really resonated in my heart. First, I’d like to say that I am a teacher. I taught in Springfield in a self-contained middle school. I’ve been listening to all this and I’ve been seeing all the movement that’s been going on. In some ways, it feels like a blog that’s just gone big and big. I’ve been getting all kinds of notices about what’s going on. All I just want to say is that, on one level, I appreciate the democratic process of people getting involved and the kids speaking up and everyone speaking up. I think that’s great. I just have to say this: I would appreciate if a millimeter of that energy about what they’re talking about in public schooling, I wish that it could also be attached to public housing, because there are people in public housing who have children who go to public schools. That’s all I’ll say on that.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
“I just wanted to raise one more issue. I don’t want to end on this dark note, but we are in the era where going to school can be a frightening prospect. We have school shootings, and we seem to forget about them until the next one comes. God forbid something like that happens in our community, but we do live in this era. I think it means that, for our safety, it is really important to have every person that we currently have in the schools there to create that safe culture and environment in our schools so that we can prevent those kinds of tragedies from happening. Understanding how difficult this is and how much effort has been put into stabilizing our budgets and providing all the services our community needs, that just really tips the scales for me.
– Northampton Resident, City Council 5/16/24
April 2024
“I’m so impressed with our high school students. You should all be so impressed with your high school students. You’re all educators and look what you’ve managed to accomplish. They’re so impressive, and that’s a testament to them, to their parents, to their teachers, to the policies that you have put in place. Thank you.
I want my first grader, when he is in high school, to be able to speak like that. I want my first grader, when he’s in high school, to have that level of commitment, to have that level of insight, to have that degree of compassion and caring for their co-students, their friends, their colleagues, and their teachers. That’s not going to happen if we make cuts.
So, I ask you to just stand up and say no to an 8% cut, no to a 4% cut, no to cuts. Give our students what they need to be successful. Balance the city budget off the backs of adults, not students.
– Elementary Parent, School Committee 4/11/24
“The Northampton community is angry, confused, and frustrated. It seems like instead of spending the past year working together to find a solution for our children, we’ve seen arguing, blaming, avoidance, and confusion about both information and who’s responsible for what. Our city and school committee members have known about this situation for years. Why wasn’t a collaborative working group between the school committee, city, school officials, educators, and the public formed years ago, or even last year, to meet regularly to:
1. Learn everything possible about this topic;
2. Hold community and town hall-style meetings all throughout the year to answer questions and brainstorm ideas;
3. Research and narrow actual solutions; and
4. Present an action plan with one-year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year solutions?
Perhaps this has happened and we just aren’t aware, but based on the discussions going on right now, it seems that it hasn’t. This meeting right here should be a culmination of that work. Instead, everyone here’s anxiously waiting for your decision. And while a level services budget would certainly be ideal for our children and educators, we’re worried that not enough time has been spent working on creative interim solutions.
It was suggested that perhaps we just aren’t at that stage in the process yet, but we’ve asked school committee and city council members, the mayor, and principals if the line can be altered after the budget is passed, and from the few who responded back to us, the answer seems to be no.
Please correct us if that’s wrong, but if that’s the case, it seems we need those solutions on the table immediately as part of the discussion tonight. For example, we proposed, both in meetings and in writing, a fourth-fifth grade combo class next year at Jackson Street, which has received a positive response from some Jackson Street teachers, the principal, and Member Agna. This would reduce next year’s fourth and fifth grade class sizes at Jackson Street from 27 students to 21 and would save a teacher.
Please support this idea. Other creative solutions that will enable class sizes to stay manageable and to spare as many educators as possible. Perhaps most disheartening though, these specific cuts at Jackson Street are aimed directly at the cohort of children who did kindergarten and first grade over Zoom at the peak of COVID. These kids are already behind and struggling in many ways, academically, socially, and beyond. We just keep thinking to ourselves, is this who we are as a community?
– Elementary Parent, School Committee 4/11/24
“Gratitude to our public leaders for engaging in a complex and difficult conversation about the current and future reality for our schools. A reminder to all of us that budgets are ultimately values, and that what we decide tonight and in future conversations about budgets are not just numbers on a page, but have real lives attached to them. Like we’ve heard so eloquently from so many of our student leaders this evening.
We know that there’s no easy choices to make and that there’s a hard road ahead in how the city and the schools navigate the current financial realities. But let’s let education be a core value of Northampton, and within that, let’s not only have a short-term conversation but think long-term about not just where we are, but what thriving can look like for our students, our teachers, our schools, and ultimately the entire city. This is a proposition where everyone rises. Gratitude to all of you for grappling with this, and encouragement to pass a level service budget this evening.
– Elementary Parent, School Committee 4/11/24
“I’m appalled that I have to stand here tonight in front of our community in defense of our schools, students, and staff in a city that has for decades attracted many of its residents by its purported progressive nature. Not only are we cutting the programs that make our schools unique, we’re fighting to keep the current bare, questionably legal, minimum guidelines of supportive or special education. While we should be the pioneers of groundbreaking, forward-thinking techniques, arts, and innovation – instead, we’re left to fight for scraps. Teachers, many of whom are city residents, are facing a pay rate freeze to their already, from what I understand, non-competitive salaries, coupled with what looks like residents having to vote for a 2.5% override to fund the city’s deficits after not getting an increase in pay. So, thank you, teachers.
We need to attract new, talented, faculty, staff, and residents to Northampton. Everyone here recognizes this, but the budget and city priorities leave a message to the young people of Northampton otherwise. Many of the proposed cuts to the education budget will directly affect the safety and educational opportunities for our most vulnerable students, especially those who often do not have a voice or feel comfortable or safe bringing it to the table.
Elementary and grade-wide paraprofessionals, adjustment and guidance counselors often take up the majority of the slack and are the first line of defense for many of these students and families. Undercutting these essential support positions will not only affect the students they are servicing but the community as a whole will be affected if anxiety supports and safety needs of our students are not met. Anyone dropping of their kids at NHS see the ambulances in the morning, what the heck?
Recently, two Northampton High School adjustment counselors saved a life. They were able to do so because of the strong bonds they had already formed with vulnerable students who felt comfortable coming to them when they got a suicide note on their phone when they weren’t supposed to have their phone in class. They sprang into quick action. I’d ask any of you in the room who have ever lost somebody in this way: what price would you pay to have that person back in your life? Is it worth the annual salary of one adjustment counselor? These positions are already staffed too thin and undervalued.
I’m sick of hearing that providing the legal, bare minimum necessities for “special education” has caused a budget burden to the Northampton schools. Providing inclusive education in the “least restrictive environment” is the law, and our district was just catching up to that. I challenge that in some situations and at the high school, we’re not even really doing it. We are certainly not launching a new, innovative special education program.
I was surprised to see this week that the latest cuts also offered a nebulous counselor to be cut and the innovative IT and Health Counselor Pathways position. Those positions are also in Transition Services and are legally required to be fulfilled and met. I’m sorry, I’m getting thrown by my time, but 42% of those students in Innovation Pathways are ELL or special education. I’m glad we’re building a resilience hub because, quite frankly, when the needs of the youth of this city are not met, they’re going to need it.
– High School Parent, School Committee 4/11/24
“I’m here to talk to you tonight as a parent, as a teacher, and as a person who works in the Arts, and as a taxpayer. I’ve been living in the town of Northampton for about 18 years. I’ve been teaching in a neighboring district for over 20 years. I happen to also run the theater program there, so a lot of what the students have said tonight have really resonated with me.
I have a student who is in eighth grade at JFK. I read every ParentSquare message. Every . . . one. So I’d like to think that I have some information about what’s going on around here, and it definitely seems like a lot of really amazing stuff is happening in all of our schools in this district. I’m really happy with the education that my child has been receiving, and I’m really excited about the education they’re going to receive next year at the high school. But obviously, that really depends on what happens here tonight, and what is happening so far here tonight is completely unconscionable. This should not be taking place. The public should not have to come and beg for public school funding.
Everything I could tell you tonight has already been said more eloquently by a lot of people before me. Ultimately, your job as the school committee is to find the funding and to propose the funding that will fully fund the schools so that the schools can operate to the best of their possible capacity. So please stand up and vote for a level fund budget tonight.
– Middle School Parent, School Committee 4/11/24
“The anger that I feel at this farce is deep and personal, but I’m also disgusted by the lack of pragmatic realism. The superintendent says we must live within our means, but a city’s public schools are not the equivalent of spending $50 more than you planned at Target. Our moral, ethical, and perhaps most important, legal obligations to our special education and ELL students are not optional purchases. Our children’s safety and education are not extra seasonal decor.
I do not understand or respect this strategy of terrorizing us with threats of cuts that would result in lawsuits that are more expensive than the cuts. Is the goal to drive down enrollment in our schools? I don’t see how that would benefit the committee, and yet you all seem to be carefully crafting headlines designed to accomplish that.
Is your goal, is the city’s goal, to only offer special education services to students whose parents have the means to hire a lawyer to enforce their IEP? I would hope you’re better people from that.
Is your goal to return to the state that we were in when I arrived in the district a decade ago and had to spend PD days in special training with DESE because our MCAS scores were so abysmal? No, that doesn’t make sense either.
So what, what is the goal?
Because being part of being a responsible adult is fulfilling your moral, ethical, and legal obligations. I don’t get to decide not to pay my taxes because my grocery and utility bills have skyrocketed. I pick up more hours working after school and reassess my priorities. NPS is at the top of my priority list despite being a mere parent and employee. I’m incredibly disappointed that it’s not even on the city’s list of priorities.
I could go through the list of proposed cuts and point out how they will inevitably lead to more students requiring special education services and a delay in students who need services being identified.
I could point out that this will result in more affluent families opting out and more administrative turnover.
I can point out that pre-pandemic, former superintendent John Provost was moved to tears when telling then School Committee Member Lauren Fallon about how overworked our elementary school principals were in a budget meeting. Pre-Covid. Cutting the tier support specialists would be cutting what little support our principals have.
Look, at the end of the day my points are all true and thus things you will have heard from a dozen other constituents. I’ll remind the school committee members that at the end of the day, their obligations are to our students, to the children of Northampton. There is no reason for you to enable the mayor trying to balance the budget on the backs of our children, our city’s most vulnerable residents, and at the expense of their future.
– Elementary Parent & Teacher, School Committee 4/11/24
“I’m highly disappointed that we are here having this conversation. The first thing that I’d like to say is thank you to the students who have talked tonight because they said it way better than I’ll ever say it, and their voices are the ones that matter the most. What I’d like to say is that it’s really clear to me as a resident here that the priorities in the city are backwards. That the city does not prioritize our schools and our students? That’s really disheartening both as a parent, as a resident, and most importantly as an educator who cares about our kids. So, I’m asking you and I’m begging you to think about voting for level funding. I’m also asking you to just think about the futures of our kids and our city, and what’s going to happen to our schools when other people start looking at our community and what our schools have to offer or don’t have to offer and start to think otherwise about coming here. I happen to love this place. I think that people sitting in this room like this place. You expect teachers to do well. I expect us to do well as educators. You all need to do better..
– Elementary Parent & Teacher, School Committee 4/11/24
“I truly believe everyone in this room wants the best for our city and our schools, but we disagree on how to get there with limited funds. These high school students are impressive. I want to also share the perspective of classroom teachers and the youngest students who cannot be heard tonight because it’s past their bedtime. I’m going to channel my big feelings by using “I” statements as taught by our guidance counselor.
I have been to the meetings. I have read the slideshows, referred back to them, written letters. I am still so confused about what you all are even about to vote on. I have heard, seen, and read so many opposing statements about the cuts and what will happen in each school. I wish I had suggestions on how to solve these budget issues, but I don’t.
I do have an important perspective on exactly how this will affect second graders in our district. I feel angry, worried, and scared because my colleagues at Bridge Street will be losing behavioral support and intervention next year. I was able to observe a literacy block of theirs a few months ago, and it brought tears to my eyes because it was beautiful, efficient, and really great teaching. Kids moved around the room seamlessly for an hour; support teachers and ESPs came in and out, giving support in the classroom as well as moving kids to other locations to support them. I got a little misty because I know how hard that is; the needs in those rooms were high. It feels like Bridge Street has the highest needs in our district currently. I need you not to cut positions from this school. Next year, they will no longer be able to pull literacy groups in the best way for kids because they will not have the staff to do so. I need you not to cut any positions from this school.
I feel angry, worried, and scared for the students and my colleagues at Jackson Street, JFK, and the high school, whose class sizes are about to jump up by, in some cases, 30%. I know teaching second grade with anywhere above 22 students is a terrible idea. There is simply no way to effectively teach that many kids foundational reading and math skills. They will lose their ability to connect with their students well; they will lose the ability to teach with small groups and differentiation; they will need to teach to the masses instead of what each child needs simply because of space and classroom management. I am worried, angry, and scared about my colleagues and students at Ryan Road and Leeds, where we will have to do work with fewer special ed teachers, ESPs, interventionists, and office staff.
I hope the school committee understands that by cutting these teachers, we will be qualifying more special education students over the next few years. It has been proven over and over and over that early intervention and services in the early grades make a difference. If we do not, the tower of learning has gaps, holes, and shaky pieces. It will fall, and it will fall hard when the students get to fourth, fifth, and middle school grade levels. I need you not to cut any positions at these schools.
I understand the city is running low on funds, but guess what? So are we. We have withheld raises for more than 10 years to help the city. I need you to not make any of these cuts for the budget next year. It will have implications that will last for years.
– Elementary Parent & Teacher, School Committee 4/11/24
“I’m here even though my three children graduated from the Northampton school system, youngest graduated nine years ago, so haven’t really been a part of this for a while. I’m also a retired homeowner in the city, so all of that means two things to me: I know how important all the school programs are, and I’m also concerned we avoid an increase in taxes. But I’m coming to this discussion because mostly because I am really, really discouraged that the Arts are on the chopping block. I’m coming to this discussion late in the game because I saw the article in the paper about the cuts to the theater and other Arts programs and want to say that they are as important to learning as any other role in the school, as are the support roles and the special ed roles. So, I’m really discouraged to see all these things being contemplated. I don’t know what complicated answers there are, and I know you have a really difficult job, but I just need to say about the Arts programs that they are equally as important to the students in the Noho schools as all the other programs my children were part of.
Multiple Arts programs as well as science and sports. And I can say, watching all of these programs over the years, that participation in a theatrical production requires the same things that other activities do and also provide the same benefits: teamwork, work practice, group effort, specialized learning, pride, empathy, cooperation, collaboration. They’re all in that activity, and they’re all skills needed in the future work world.
Hitting a high note in a song after practicing for months involves the same diligence, practice, and focus as catching a perfect pass. Both of those things are equally important to some of the students in the school. Coordinating music, lights, and people to hit that perfect emotion as the curtain rises or falls involves the same skills and collaboration as executing a perfect play.
Finding just the right instruments and equipment to make the perfect lighting or sound cue requires the same learning and technical skills as finding the right tools and equipment to execute a scientific experiment. All of these endeavors require teachers and coaches to make a successful learning experience for as many students as possible.
Some of our school community need the Arts to practice those skills. From my children’s classmates, I know several kids who make their living directly from their Theater Arts, music, and media experiences in Northampton High. That’s time. One is a movie producer in LA, one owns his own theatrical technology company, one works in professional music production, and one works for CGI for film.
Those are real-world jobs that came about because of the skills they developed at Northampton High School. It would be really sad to deny future Northampton students the same opportunities. All opportunities need to be offered: sports, music.
– Northampton Resident, School Committee, 4/11/24
“I’m a recent graduate of Northampton High School and a proud alumni of the NHS Theater Department. It has come to my attention that a proposed budget plan for the upcoming school year includes personnel cuts to the science department, the history department, and the theater department, among others. I’d like to briefly share my personal experience with each department in the hopes that each of you can understand how extremely important the positions are that you are considering letting go and how they’ve helped shape me as an average student.
Starting with the science department, through my time at Northampton High, the dedicated teachers of the science department taught me some of the most important parts about science and how it falls into our daily life. I’d like to focus on one class in particular. In the fall of my senior year, I took a human anatomy course that was one of my favorite classes I ever had. We had real hands-on experience, including dissecting sheep brains and cow eyes. This class taught me valuable lessons about the human body and how to ensure that I treat my body well. It was also incredibly fun, and our teacher was super enthusiastic about it, which made it ten times better. This class was an elective course, and with the proposed budget cuts, future students may not have access to classes like this.
On to the history department. History has always been my favorite course at school. Through incredible teachers like Mr. Littlefield, Miss Fontaine, and Mr. Frett, I got my love of history and politics, and now I’m majoring in Political Communications. The history department teaches the significance of our place in the world, what came before us, and how we can contextualize the actions of our ancestors into modern-day decision-making. By teaching critical classes like Black History and Government and Politics, students grasp real-life issues and learn how to make a difference in our world. I can personally say that without a doubt, I would not have the career path that I do without the expertise of the teachers in the history department. And with possible cuts to their budget, the future of our community would not have the unique political awareness that makes Northampton special.
And lastly, the theater department. I cannot stress how crucial the theater department is to me and hundreds of current and previous students. While the theater department may not be the most academically important, it’s the place where I found my voice, which is arguably the most important thing someone can know how to use. And with full-time leadership of a theater teacher like Dave Grout, theater would not be the same. And who wouldn’t want to go to a school that can put on productions of Freaky Friday, Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia, and more? It’s vital for students to have access to a theater department like Northampton’s so they can learn the importance of art and theater and have experts help them discover their talents and uplift their voices so they know what they really are capable of as they enter the real world.
Members, as you vote for the upcoming budget plan, I cannot stress how important it is to keep this in mind. And I’m calling on you to vote for a level services budget so the future of our generation, our community, and our country can have access to the same classes and activities that I did, which made my time in Northampton so special.
Thank you for your time, and please, please, please remember that what might make the most fiscal sense may not be the best for our district. It’s in times like this where we ask you to vote with your conscience and good hearts because that’s what we have elected you to do.
– NPS Alumni, School Committee 4/11/24
“I remember being here when I was a student about 10 years ago, having the same fight for arts and for fully funding the school budget. I just want to say the theater program saved my life as a high school student. That’s not an exaggeration. I do not think I would be here now without that program. It was incredibly meaningful to me, and I work in a theater professionally now. I don’t think I would be here as a human alive today without that program. And that’s my experience.
A lot of students right now are sharing about their experiences with the theater program, but I think that is equally true for every support staff position, for every paraeducator, for every special ed position. Each of these positions matters, and each of them saves lives. And to cut any of them is, to my mind, is not acceptable.
I also want to just speak a little bit about your role because I don’t think that’s come up a huge amount yet tonight. I’m a little bit of a policy nerd as well. So as I understand it, you can’t solve the city’s budget. That’s not your role, but what you can do is vote for the budget that students need and that the school district needs and let the city council do their job, which is to balance the budget, to make hard decisions, to decide what departments get cut, to what amount. But the budget that you vote for is a ceiling. What you vote for, they can’t add to it. All they can do is cut from it. And so if you pass a level service budget, which is what I hope you’ll do, which is a 14% increase, that enables the city council to do their job. It allows them to weigh the schools, the needs of the schools, with the needs of other departments and make the hard decisions that they need to make. If you pass a reduced budget, a 4% increase or an 8% increase, you’re stopping the city council from being able to weigh the full needs of the schools. And I believe a level service budget is the full needs of the schools.
I just want to say that what you pass is not the end of discussion, but it is the beginning of one, and that I see your role as a school committee, is not to cut down possibilities but to create them. So I hope you’ll do that tonight and be brave for all of the students now and in the past and in the future.
– NPS Alumni, School Committee 4/11/24