NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Public School district is facing a potential budget shortfall of more than $2.75 million next fiscal year, with school administrators signaling that staffing cuts were not off the table to close the gap — a potential solution that isn’t sitting well with school union members.

Superintendent Portia Bonner told the School Committee last week that the department’s budget is projected to be more than $40 million next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2024, an increase of 8% from the current budget of about $36.5 million.

Most of the additional funds are needed to pay for salary increases and cost-of-living adjustments for employees, Bonner told the committee when she unveiled a first view of the budget at the Dec. 14 meeting.

Bonner blamed the current budget gap on an overuse of school choice funds, an increase in staffing in the district, and union contracts over the past three years exceeding the school’s revenue growth.

“We are making a concerted effort to keep within the two-year plan to work to balance the school budget and return Northampton Public Schools to strong fiscal principles,” Bonner said. “To meet this promise we must consider reductions within the workforce and rebuild the school choice reserves.”

Bonner said there were additional stressors that affected the school budget, such as student learning loss associated with the pandemic, an increased number of special needs students and rising contractual transportation costs.

Officials have been warning for some time that next fiscal year would be a tough one for the city’s school budget, which narrowly managed to stave off cuts in the current fiscal year thanks to an influx of emergency cash funds from the city. But the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will also have to contend with the cessation of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which had been given to schools over the past few years to help deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her budget message introducing the current year’s budget, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra issued a warning on the budget situation.

“The use of reserves greater than incoming revenue and one-time federal funds to such a degree will create a gap that will exceed the city’s capacity to raise additional revenue to cover it, and I am concerned about our ability to maintain our educational programs and staffing at current levels in near-future years,” she wrote.

She also said at that time that another Proposition 2.5% general override may be needed in fiscal 2025 that would be implemented in fiscal 2026.

Union speaks out

Several members of the district’s Northampton Association of School Employees (NASE) union spoke out against the proposed staff eliminations at the committee’s Dec. 14 meeting.

“Many people might think that there is fluff in the school budget, that there are extra people and lots of free time,” said Andrea Egitto, NASE president and a kindergarten teacher at Ryan Road Elementary.

“Let me assure you that this is not the case. Our students are barely getting by with the support they have … our schools can’t possibly survive these cuts.”

Jennifer Heyden, an education support professional at JFK Middle School, said that her family had attended Northampton schools for generations and that the cuts risked the district losing the quality of education that her family received.

“As a taxpayer, I’m appalled with the looming significant budget cuts to our school,” Heyden said. “We need to get creative and think outside of the box to make sure that people will want to stay in Northampton and we will not lose sight of what is really important — our school, our staff, our students and our future.”

School Committee members also expressed reservation about the cuts that may be necessary to balance the school budget, with some saying cuts aren’t the way to do it.

“I appreciate that this is the beginning of the conversation, not the middle or the end,” said Ward 3 committee member Emily Serafy-Cox. “Our schools are not going to be the same place if we move forward with these numbers, so we have to find a different solution.”

Ward 5 committee member Dina Levi called for the creation of a citywide strategic plan between the schools and other city departments to come up with potential solutions to solve the school budget issue.

“We do frequently feel like we are being pitted against each other, that there’s one budget and if the schools get more money, then other offices get less,” Levi said. “We’ve got to come at this through the lens that we are all working together towards that same common good, which is the betterment of our entire city and the betterment of our schools.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.