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Patrick Tutwiler, education secretary for Massachusetts, laughs with Helen Tejirian, a Northampton High School student and member of the Northampton Youth Commission. The commission organized and hosted Tutwiler’s visit to NHS on Tuesday to discuss school funding. -
Ana Holmes and Theodore DeAngelis-Page, Gateway Regional High School students, speak at an event organized by the Northampton Youth Commission to host Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, at Northampton High School on Tuesday. -
Conor Driscoll, Hatfield Public Schools superintendent and Smith Academy principal, speaks at an event organized by the Northampton Youth Commission on Tuesday. The commission invited Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, to discuss school funding. -
Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, answers questions during an event organized by the Northampton Youth Commission to discuss school funding, Tuesday morning at Northampton High School. At the podium is Amelia Durbin, Owen Daggett, and Helen Tejirian, NHS students and members of the Youth Commission. -
Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, answers questions during an event organized by the Northampton Youth Commission to discuss school funding, Tuesday morning at Northampton High School. At the podium is Amelia Durbin, Owen Daggett, and Helen Tejirian, NHS students and members of the Youth Commission. -
Amelia Durbin, Owen Daggett, and Helen Tejirian, Northampton High School students and members of the Northampton Youth Commission, speak during an event where the group hosted Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary. -
E. Xiomara Herman, Amherst superintendent of schools, speaks at an event organized by the Northampton Youth Commission to host Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, to discuss school funding Tuesday morning at Northampton High School. -
Patrick Tutwiler, the state’s education secretary, gives state Sen. Jo Comeford a high-five after an event hosted by the Northampton Youth Commission to discuss school funding Tuesday morning at Northampton High School.
NORTHAMPTON — School districts across the Pioneer Valley made their case for more support to rural and western school districts, appealing directly before Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler during a visit he made to Northampton High School on Tuesday.
Tutwiler made the trek from Boston to Northampton at the request of the Northampton Youth Commission, an official city body consisting of high school students that advocates for youth in the city. The commission had previously met with Tutwiler in the Boston office of state Sen. Jo Comerford in December.
For an hour, students and administrators from seven local school districts presented to Tutwiler the particular needs facing their districts. Those districts were Northampton Public Schools, Hatfield Public Schools, Hadley Public Schools, Pioneer Valley Regional School District, Hampshire Regional School District, Gateway Regional School District, and Amherst-Pelham Regional School District.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman of the Amherst-Pelham district told Tutwiler that the district was facing a “breaking point” where expenses were rapidly outpacing school revenue. According to Herman, the school district combined with the elementary schools in Amherst and Pelham faced a combined deficit of $2.7 million.
“This shortfall is not a result of poor fiscal planning or fiscal irresponsibility,” Herman said. “It’s a result of cost increases that are becoming impossible to absorb without structural state support.”
In particular focus was the state’s formula for distributing funds to different school districts, known as Chapter 70 funding. Districts in Hampshire County have long expressed concern that they’ve been underfunded by the state, with Northampton saying less than a quarter of its funding comes from the commonwealth.
Northampton Youth Commission Vice Chair Helen Tejirian, a junior at Northampton High School, called on the commonwealth to revisit local contribution levels to the Chapter 70 funding formula, an aspect that was last changed 17 years ago. The formula has received several other updates since then, such as the Student Opportunity Act of 2019 that changed the required minimum spending.
“To put that number in perspective, 17 years is longer than I’ve been alive,” Tejirian said. “My entire lifetime, our state has relied on one municipal contribution formula, even as fiscal capacity and priorities. The formula is outdated.”
Another topic of note was transportation costs, of particular issue to more rural school districts such as Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield, which is not serviced by any form of public transportation or regional transit authority.
“Students have to rely on friends or family to pick them up if they ever have to stay after school,” said Brody Bartak, an eighth grader at the school who spoke on Tuesday. “If we had [public transportation] in our area, students would have a lot more freedom to go where they want on their own time.”
Conor Driscoll, the superintendent of Hatfield Public Schools and principal of Smith Academy, said the district had received a 43% increase in its transportation contract, while special education costs also continued to climb.
“Both these areas, special education and transportation, are required spending,” Driscoll said. “When the increases for them are disproportionately large, it creates an inequitable pattern of spending in a district.”
Speaking to those gathered within the high school auditorium following the presentations, Tutwiler thanked the Youth Commission for putting the event together, while also acknowledging some of the frustrations that districts are facing.
“My job is about listening to people and trying to understand their situation so that we can craft both policy and resource allocation proposals that meet your needs,” Tutwiler said. “I understand and respect that there’s a feeling that that has not happened.”
Tutwiler said he was committed to further supporting the schools, but the state Legislature would first need to approve a reworking of Chapter 70 before any action could take place.
“What the administration has done are the things that are within its purview,” Tutwiler said. “We are willing partners, should the Legislature decide to take a step to open up Chapter 70 and begin to figure out what shifts need to be made.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
