Northampton schools in line for $192K boost if state budget holds

Northampton High School

Northampton High School file photo

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

Staff Writer

Published: 07-27-2024 4:01 PM

NORTHAMPTON — After a protracted battle between the city and the Northampton Association of School Employees union regarding staff cuts in this year’s school budget, the Northampton Public School district may be getting some much-needed additional funds from the state.

Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra on Friday issued a statement saying that the state’s Division of Local Services had posted preliminary estimates for municipal funding based on the final state budget for fiscal 2025. The budget includes an increase in funding for school districts via Chapter 70 money, more than had been included in the original proposed budget by Gov. Maura Healey that Sciarra had used in developing the city’s budget.

Sciarra said that at present, the additional funding would mean that NPS would receive $192,400 more from the state than anticipated, subject to change in the legislative process. Sciarra said if the additional funding amount is confirmed, she would immediately call a special City Council meeting to determine how to appropriate those funds to the district. Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, meanwhile, would be in line for $8,806 more.

“This action, should it be possible, is unprecedented and reflects my ongoing commitment to addressing the significant budgetary challenges facing our school district,” Sciarra said in the statement regarding the additional funding. “This is a critical step in our collective efforts to right the fiscal course for the Northampton Public Schools and support our students and educators.”

Throughout this year’s budget season, the city has seen strong divisions over school funding, with pandemic-related relief dollars no longer available and contractually-obliged wage increases for staff. Although the final approved city budget increased the school budget by 8% from the previous year, twice what the mayor originally proposed, it also meant that around 20 positions across the district would be cut.

Both city officials and members of the public had displayed strong outbursts of emotion during council and school committee meetings, with one school committee meeting seeing a high school student leave the room in tears and another council meeting where Council President Alex Jarrett had to ask audience members to refrain from repeated laughing and hissing.

Those tensions were once again on display during a special school committee meeting last Wednesday, where Ward 3 committee member Emily Serafy-Cox, backed by Ward 4’s Michael Stein, led a last-ditch effort to try to prevent some of the cuts for positions that work directly with students. Serafy-Cox made a motion to cut more administrative positions, such as the school district’s director of curriculum and family engagement coordinator.

“I’ve stated since the beginning of this process my priority was for student-facing positions,” Serafy-Cox said during the meeting. “That’s what I’m hearing from our constituents, and I’m pretty sure that’s what many of our other school committee members are hearing as well.”

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But the motion was not supported by the rest of the committee, and the final vote was 6-2 against. The vote came after Superintendent Portia Bonner argued against the changes in cuts, saying the director of curriculum position was responsible for grant writing and updating school standards.

“The loss of this position would affect curriculum work, which is a constant flowing cycle of updates and revisions to curriculum to meet changing standards and to be more culturally responsive to the needs of our students,” Bonner said. “To have a loss of this position would be a great concern.”

At one point while discussing the new Special Education Stabilization Fund set up by the mayor this season, Bonner remarked how the fund could only be used for purposes relating to special education and not the general budget. That led to an interjection from Stein, who claimed that the money from the fund to the district this year amounted to general budget usage. Bonner admonished Stein for the interruption, and Stein in turn said he was following Robert’s Rules of Order that makes up standard meeting procedure. The exchange highlighted how tensions regarding the budget remain following the final vote by the council earlier this month.

Andrea Egitto, president of the NASE union, told the Gazette that she hoped the committee would reconsider their vote in light of the news of the additional funding from the state.

“I’m hopeful that with the added funds, the school committee will look at it again,” Egitto said. “They should use that money to reinstate student-facing positions.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com