LEVERETT — A steep increase in what Leverett will pay into the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ fiscal year 2026 budget is being supported by the Select Board, even with concerns from board members about the process used to arrive at the town’s assessment.

The board voted 2-1 to recommend that residents at the May 3 annual Town Meeting vote in favor of a $1.86 million assessment representing a 14%, or $230,356, increase over this year’s $1.63 million assessment.

The lone vote against the schools assessment was cast by Select Board member Patricia Duffy, who expressed frustration at how assessments for the four member towns, which includes Amherst, Shutesbury and Pelham, were determined by the Amherst Regional School Committee with limited input from other elected officials.

“Because we had no control over this process, I’m not in favor of this budget,” Duffy said.

Duffy pointed to the March 31 meeting where the school committee set a $37.08 million fiscal year 2026 budget that aims to preserve most current staffing. During that meeting, attended by officials from all four towns, representatives of the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education informed the school committee that the only way to calculate assessments is by using the formula in the regional agreement. In recent years, though, assessments have been calculated in other ways, including using a guardrail method that capped the increases for towns. DESE previously approved these methods, but will no longer do so.

While invited to be at that meeting, Duffy noted there was no opportunity to interact, offer comment or respond to the DESE personnel.

Leverett representative Tilman Wolf, and Amherst representative Irv Rhodes, were the only two school committee members to vote against the recommendation.

The assessments need to be approved by three of the four towns, either at Town Meetings or through Town Council vote in Amherst

Select Board Chairman Tom Hankinson joined Select Board member Jed Proujansky in endorsing the assessment. Hankinson said he also was concerned with how things played out at the school committee meeting, though he said there is a commitment to find a way to make the assessments more fair, and to share information outside the periodic four town meetings.

Hankinson said there was no sense in trying to lower Leverett’s assessment, especially learning that the Pelham Finance Committee is supporting that town’s assessment, which is even higher at 23%, a $244,807 increase.

Board members said there is a consensus that the regional schools budget is being set by the dictates of Amherst officials and that appeals, such as merging the middle school into the high school as a cost-saving measure, are falling on deaf ears.

Amherst officials have contended the smaller towns all have room within their tax caps to increase their assessments without cutting other services. But Duffy said only Amherst has the ability to increase its revenues through an improved tax base by encouraging commercial growth.

There also may be a need to change the school committee’s voting structure as five of the nine members are from Amherst, allowing them to outvote the two Pelham representatives and one each from Leverett and Shutesbury, Duffy suggested.

“We have no control, basically,” Duffy said. “It’s time for us to do something different.”

One suggestion brought to the Select Board by a resident was the possibility of exploring other regional school partnerships, noting that for those families living in North Leverett, their homes are closer to Turners Falls High School than the Amherst Regional schools.

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