NORTHAMPTON — The School Committee affirmed its support for Superintendent Portia Bonner on Wednesday, some two weeks after the school union voted no confidence in their school leader following a tumultuous budget season this spring.

Emerging from a two-hour executive session to discuss how they would respond to the June 12 announcement from the Northampton Association of School Employees union, the committee’s chair, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, read a statement approved unanimously by the committee.

“We have heard the concerns of NASE, and are responding to affirm our commitment to support Dr. Bonner and to work with our larger school community to chart a path forward for our district,” the statement reads. “We remain committed to Dr. Bonner’s success, at the same time we acknowledge there has been a fracture in trust within the school community, and reestablishing this will require work on behalf of both the superintendent and the school committee.”

The statement noted that Bonner, the district’s third superintendent in the last three years, had yet to complete a full year of service in the district and subsequently have a regular evaluation by the committee.

Other than the mayor, no committee member spoke in the public portion of the meeting about Bonner. The executive session, which was closed to the public, included participation by the committee members, Bonner and attorney Kelly Gonzalez.

NASE’s no-confidence vote took place amid an ongoing fight over the school’s budget for fiscal 2025, which begins Monday. Though the proposed budget increases school funding significantly from the current year, at least 20 positions are at risk of being eliminated. NASE supports a level-services budget that would avoid job cuts, something the city has countered would be fiscally irresponsible.

The union criticized Bonner for not doing enough to advocate for the budget, among other concerns.

Before they settled on a final version in support of Bonner, the School Committee discussed a preliminary draft authored by committee members Gwen Agna, Karen Foster Cannon and Aline Davis that noted the effects the fight over the school budget has had on the community, including a drop in morale.

“Throughout this process, as staff have worried for their own jobs, their colleagues’ jobs, and shared concerns about the impact on the students they are charged with educating, morale in the district has dropped and tensions have increased considerably,” the draft states. “In this climate, Dr. Bonner has been centered in a community conversation and controversy that can not and will not ever produce a ‘winner.’”

That part of the draft did not make it into the committee’s final statement, nor did a section in which the authors defended Bonner from an interaction she had with a Northampton High School student during a committee meeting in April over the proposed budget. Bonner told the student she had made factually incorrect statements following criticism of the budget cuts made by the student during a presentation. The student left upset and when she returned, Bonner apologized to her. NASE had cited the interaction as showcasing a “disdain for students.”

“We recognize that her interaction with a student at the April meeting was challenging,” the draft states. “Dr. Bonner did have a duty to correct misinformation that was presented. All stakeholders present at that meeting were doing their best to advocate, share information, and deliberate in a fraught environment. There must be room for imperfection in our community; indeed, it is imperfection that makes us all human.”

Budget votes

The committee also considered two scenarios regarding the fiscal 2025 budget currently under consideration by the City Council — one based on a 5% increase for schools and another based on an 8% increase.

The 8% scenario would mean the loss of 20 full-time staff positions. Members did not discuss the 5% increase due to time limitations at Wednesday’s meeting. Both scenarios are lower than the committee’s original vote for a level-services budget that would have meant a 14% spending increase for schools, but that option is now off the table.

Michael Stein, the committee member for Ward 4 and an advocate of a level-services budget, reiterated his concerns for the job cuts the budget would bring.

“I’m really concerned looking at some of these reductions, about the impact on our kids and on our staff,” Stein said. “They’re going to not only cost us financially, but they’re also going to cost us in terms of what we’ve lost, and what our kids will lose.”

The meeting was the last regular session before the committee adjourns for the summer, returning in August.

“I would prefer not to vote tonight, because I have a list of $400,000 worth of positions that we’ve heard from community members, from caregivers, from students and from teachers that are necessary positions,” said Ward 3’s Emily Serafy-Cox, who has also previously indicated support for the level-services budget.

The council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to decide whether to accept the mayor’s amended city budget with the 8% increase in funding for schools. At its meeting Wednesday, the School Committee supported this budget by a 5-3 vote, with Serafy-Cox, Stein and Sciarra voting no.

“I don’t want to solidify these cuts and I think there are still more possibilities to avoid some of them,” Serafy-Cox said during the meeting in explaining her vote.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.