Cathleen Mitchell: Town’s budget does not meet needs of schools, students

Despite the Gazette’s somewhat misleading recent headline stating that the FY26 budget submitted for the town of Amherst “nearly meets school requests,” the town manager’s budget does not grant what the schools actually need.

While the budget does meet the voted-upon request of the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools, the regional schools will still be forced to cut 12.1 positions in order to reduce spending by $812,126. We are still waiting for news on votes on the regional budget at the three Town Meetings to know the ultimate fate of the regional budget, and whether additional reductions will be necessary.

The Elementary School Committee voted a budget with a 6% increase over FY25, asking Amherst for $539,408 more than the town wanted to pay. The town manager’s budget gives the elementary schools 5% and not the 6% requested, a difference of $269,704, meaning that the elementary schools will need to further reduce the budget by that amount. The elementary schools have already been forced to cut 6.4 positions to reduce spending by $887,054. With the 5% increase offered by the town manager, instead of the voted 6% increase, the elementary schools will likely eliminate another three to four positions, for a total of 10-11 positions.

In any discussion of Amherst’s FY26 budgets, it should be acknowledged that, together, Amherst’s two districts are eliminating nearly $2 million in spending and cutting 22-23 positions. In contrast, the town isn’t eliminating any positions, and instead is simply temporarily freezing 6.4 positions. While the town manager’s budget may provide some of what the schools have asked for, the budget most certainly does not actually meet the needs of our schools or children.

Cathleen Mitchell

Amherst