NORTHAMPTON — City councilors and school committee members heard a sobering budget presentation Tuesday by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra warning of the necessity of Proposition 2½ overrides to cover ballooning school spending.

Using dozens of charts to break down the city’s outlook on revenues and expenditures for fiscal 2025, which begins July 1, Sciarra said even a 4% increase in next year’s school budget, while holding other municipal departments to a 2.5% raise, would leave a $700,000 hole in the budget and require at least a $2.5 million override for fiscal 2026.

The Northampton Public Schools, however, want to increase next year’s budget by 8% over the current year’s spending, according to a budget proposal floated in December by Superintendent Portia Bonner. Sciarra said this would mean a $3,456,929 deficit in FY25 and create a need for two $5 million overrides in the next five years.

While praising Bonner for producing a budget draft so early in the process, the mayor said she could support a 4% increase but not an 8% jump.

Bonner acknowledged to the School Committee in December that her proposed budget would create a large shortfall and that layoffs might be necessary.

“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.”

In April, Sciarra agreed to use $1.2 million from the city’s fiscal stability stabilization fund to plug part of a $2.3 million shortfall in the current year’s school budget. The aim was to balance the budget in two years.

The mayor warned at the time that stable, recurring revenues are needed to pay for recurring expenses and that the city was heading for trouble by spending down emergency relief and school choice reserves.

“Remember, reserves take years to build,” she said Tuesday. “Using them is not going to solve a budget deficit. The hole will only grow.”

She cited two “fiscal cliffs” the school district is facing: the end of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which brought in about $7 million for Northampton over the course of the pandemic, and depletion of the school choice revolving fund.

While the city’s reserve funds have seen substantial growth over the last five years, she said, much of that can be attributed to pandemic relief that most likely won’t be seen again. At the same time, the kinds of one-time events for which reserves are needed, such as last year’s floods, show signs of becoming more frequent.

Northampton created the fiscal stability stabilization fund with a $2.5 million override in 2015. The understanding was that it would provide predictability along with periodic, planned overrides. It was seven years until the city implemented the next override, in FY22, Sciarra said. Money has been taken out of the fund only in fiscal 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.

“In fiscal 2024, we’ve begun to use more than we’re putting in,” she said.

Councilors and school committee members offered thanks to Sciarra for her detailed presentation. Trustees from Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School also attended the online meeting.

School Committee member Michael Stein said the schools have added 47 positions since 2018, at a time of flat enrollment, that were not built into appropriations.

“That’s the big elephant,” he said.

That year, the school district adopted a new special education model that called for educating children with special needs in regular classrooms.

“Will we pay for what we’ve committed to or cut 20 positions?” Stein asked.

He also said teacher pay in Northampton is too low.

Committee member Gwen Agna said she supported the idea of a strategic plan and noted that Northampton home prices were making living in the city unattainable for many.

Committee member Margaret Miller asked if there was a way to advocate for more state support.

“Supporting the schools will bring people into the city,” she said. “The more cuts we make, the more people will leave the school system.”

Northampton’s Chapter 70 aid has been flat for many years, and at $11 million this year is $2.5 million less than it was in 2002. Only Longmeadow among comparable communities receives a lower percentage of its school revenues from state aid.

Sciarra said there had been hope that money from the state’s Fair Share amendment would flow to the schools, but nothing has materialized so far.

“Short of changing the formula, I don’t know what we can do,” she said.

City Councilor Rachel Maiore said tough conversations were ahead.

“We need to think how we can spread those cuts,” she said. “The schools benefit the entire city.”

City Councilor Garrick Perry said it was noteworthy to him that rooms and meals tax revenues were back to pre-pandemic levels when the city these days offers little in the way of nightlife.

He saluted the mayor’s economic team for its work on trying to attract a younger population to Northampton.

“We have the ability to overcome some of these gaps through nontraditional means,” he said.

Many agreed that collaboration and shared effort were important.

“We’ve all got to put our heads together,” City Councilor Marianne LaBarge said.