SOS Support Our Schools

FY26 School Budget

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SOS Support Our Schools
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The mayor’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget is out, and once again, she is shortchanging the schools. It’s time to make our voices heard. Let the mayor and councilors know you support fully funded schools!

Join teachers and community members to support the Strong Budget as ratified by the school committee. The mayor has chosen once again to ignore the recommendations of school committee by producing an inadequate budget for the schools.

What You Need to Know 

For the third year in a row, the Mayor’s proposed budget falls short of what our public schools — our kids — need.

Meanwhile, the city brings in enough recurring revenue to fully fund education for ALL children.

What’s the impact?

  • Students being denied IEP services
  • Overcrowded classes: 30 kids in core subjects like English & Spanish at the High School
  • Teachers paying out-of-pocket for curricular and other basic materials

 It doesn’t have to be this way.

This is about choices. Priorities. Leadership.

 WHAT CAN YOU DO?

  •  Show up at the City Council and School Committee meetings. Public comments matter.
  • Join us door knocking on Saturdays! Help neighbors learn what’s at stake. Check Instagram and Facebook for location and times.

 Our schools. Our kids. Our responsibility. Let’s act!

Budget questions for the mayor from Support our Schools

If schools are the “largest priority,” why is NPS the only city department to have suffered widespread staffing reductions over the past three years? 

And, If the mayor disagrees with this assertion, can she provide the number of FTE staffing reductions in other city departments? 

Why does the mayor imply that the city would not be on solid financial ground if it increased school funding? The City has the highest possible bond ratings, has tens of millions of dollars in its general reserve accounts, and generates multi-million dollar operating surpluses every year. What other commitments has the city made that places it on the knife’s edge of instability if another $655K were invested in NPS (which would achieve level services)?

If the city’s financial situation is so uncertain, why was $15.7 million in FY26 general fund capital projects approved in January when state best practices advise that the following year’s capital plan not be approved until June, after the general fund budget is known?

What evidence is there that a $5 million override in FY25 would be needed to fund the strong budget school budget, other than an unaudited spreadsheet that 

1. underestimates the operating surplus that will be generated in FY25 by over $2.5 million?

 2. ignores over 75% of the funds available in general reserve accounts that can be used for any legal purpose?

 3. ignores that millions of dollars of recurring revenue is funneled into the capital improvement plan year”?

Has the mayor produced an override scenario that would not tie up $4.5 million in medium or low priority capital projects in the same year she would ask for an override?

Has the mayor produced any alternative override scenario at all?

What does “total available new revenue” mean, and why is it not explained? 

Does this mean new growth plus the 2.5% increase in the property tax levy? Does it refer to the anticipated operating surplus? Both? 

How can the mayor assert that revenue estimates for FY26 and beyond are “aggressive” without showing our projected revenues for FY25? Several key revenue category estimates for FY26 look to be estimated at under 90% of projected FY25 revenue, which will only lead to more recurring money being misclassified as free cash. 

What other growth in city departments is being constrained? What are examples of other city departments that should be growing? 

Why does the mayor cite the unprecedented nature of increased city contributions to the NPS budget without mentioning that the staffing reductions are also unprecedented?

Why does the mayor not mention that until recently NPS educators were in the bottom 1% of the state for salary?

Why does the mayor not mention that her predecessor oversaw a large increase to NPS’s staffing needs with the implementation of the WINS program, but DID NOT correspondingly increase the city’s contribution at that time, which forced NPS to drain its school choice fund? 

Is this context omitted because it would change the denominator for the   percentage calculations that she likes to cite as evidence of her support of NPS? 

Why does the mayor not also provide the context that the NPS overall budget will have only increased 19.1% since FY22?

The mayor’s statement mentions responsibility frequently. What does the mayor believe her responsibility is to NPS?  How does she judge whether she is meeting that responsibility? Does she believe it is not the mayor’s responsibility, both as head of the city’s executive branch and the chair of the School Committee, to offer solutions to the school funding issues caused by her predecessor (as noted above) other than cutting staff and programming?

Why is tapping the Fiscal Stability Fund framed as burdensome to the city? Stabilization funds are replenished largely by recurring revenue that has been underestimated and expenses that have been overestimated. In other words, a portion of that money should have been budgeted for services in the first place.

How would the Mayor specifically describe “robust collaboration”? What structures, opportunities, and conditions have to be in place with what parties to ensure that “robust collaboration”?  For example, in Northampton, most of the public communication between the public and elected officials takes place in “one way” channels that do not allow dialogue: public comment, writing to officials, council deliberation, mayoral statements and reports.  How do you see this communication system offering opportunities for robust collaboration?

Twelve positions were eliminated for FY24, and 20 positions were eliminated for FY25. The Mayor, City Council, and School Committee recently described the schools in a state of “crisis,” and the Superintendent recently described the school budget as already “cut to the bone.” Since the Mayor’s plan for the FY26 school budget proposal would require further reductions of positions through attrition and further cuts to student services, how will the Mayor address the inevitable heightened crisis that will occur in the 2025/2026 school year?

School staffing cuts are used to balance the city budget. Have any Capital Improvement Projects been cut or delayed to help balance the city budget?

According to the city’s policies, the water/sewer enterprise is a closed financial system and is funded solely by its rate collections. The city recently stated that it has collected millions of unplanned revenues from Coca Cola Bottling and continues to collect revenue as the company stays longer than originally communicated. Instead of earmarking $3.1M of ARPA money for water/sewer upgrades, can the $3.1M ARPA money be used in a way that expands the fiscal stability fund by $3.1M? And can the water/sewer Main Street upgrade be paid for by the water/sewer enterprise, per the city’s long standing closed system policies?

Regarding proposition 2 ½ property tax overrides, we were told last year that the final budget would require an immediate override. However, the Mayor miscalculated and cancelled that override. Why should we believe the Mayor this year that an override would be required to fund the schools at the level recommended by the School Committee?

The Fiscal Stability Plan was established under Mayor Narkewicz during a time of historically low inflation and interest rates. The paradigm has changed, and interest rates and inflation have increased significantly, which has put significant strain on the operating budget. Given this, is there any plan to bolster the Fiscal Stability Plan’s Fiscal Stability Fund to better support the operating budget? For example, the current plan is to allocate 1/12th of free cash to the Fiscal Stability Fund – can this be increased to a higher allocation such as 1/6th or 1/3rd?

If the Mayor is running the city responsibility, why has she driven us into two consecutive fiscal cliffs (FY25 and FY26) where “budget shortfalls” have caused her to propose budgets that reduce school staffing and services? Did she miscalculate when she cancelled the property tax override last year?

Regarding alternative school options (charter schools and school choice), how can Northampton compete with other districts when it continues to reduce services year after year – while charter schools become more competitive? Do we expect a higher percentage of students to choose districts other than NPS, further straining the budget and creating a downward spiral?

How does Northampton plan to halt the downward spiral in its school systems – that is, staffing and services reductions that motivate students to choose districts other than NPS, which then strains the budget and causes further staffing and services reductions. Is the Mayor concerned about this?

The DPW Director recently told the City Council that it was fully operational and at full capacity for the major ice storm, and open/unfilled positions did not affect services. Given that the DPW is able to operate at full capacity without these positions being filled, they are effectively not using a significant portion of their budget. Can the DPW’s budget be reduced so that other department budgets can be increased (which would have a neutral effect on the overall city budget)?

Is the city able to use reserves other than the fiscal stability fund to support school operations? For example, can the undesignated fund or the general stability fund be used to support school operations?

What’s wrong with the mayor’s FY26 school budget?

  • After the cuts of 20+ positions last year, this year’s budget doesn’t maintain even last year’s reduced level of services, resulting in even more cuts to our already bare bones staff in the schools. The mayor’s budget means cuts to the gardens at the elementary school, clerical staff, teachers who won’t be replaced after retirements, and cuts to transportation for unhoused children and those in foster care.
  • In March, city council voted for an emergency mid-year appropriation to the schools. All city councilors voted for the appropriation and agreed the schools were in crisis. The mayor’s current budget reduces staff even further, making the crisis even worse.
  • The mayor is once again ignoring the recommendation of the experts on school committee, the superintendent, and our teachers and staff. City council should be a check and balance to counter the Mayor’s out-of-control austerity budget.

Write to City Council

Please write to City Council and ask them to do their job as a check and balance on the mayor by questioning her inadequate budget. You can use the email template below as a start point. Please write to all three email addresses so that all elected officials hear from community members.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Email Template

Subject: Why is the city turning its back on public education?

Dear Mayor and City Council,

I am one of many people in Northampton who is extremely concerned about the inadequate FY26 school budget from the mayor. Despite the additional money recently “found” and added, the school budget will still result in understaffing that hurts every child, in every grade, at every school.

The question many of us are asking is “why?” Why can’t our city, with its generous annual surpluses and its generous capital budget, be at all “generous,” or even fair, in its allocations to public education?

We’ve heard all the talk about “one-time funds” vs. “recurring funds.” We’ve heard lots of percentages, none of which ever refer to education or student’s needs. We’ve heard the appeals to “guidance from DOR,” and from “our independent auditor,” but don’t think either is seriously recommending that we forego reading help to 3rd graders who need it, or deprive high school seniors of being able to take any classes at their own school, or worst of all, regularly violate IEPs and endanger children? And sadly, we have heard the mayor’s absolute unwillingness to explore or consider any alternative budgeting practices that could provide additional revenue for schools without jeopardizing savings or triggering additional overrides.

In response to the mayor’s budget presentation at the May 21 City Council meeting, I’m writing to ask you to take a close look at her priorities. Once again, the mayor is putting a budget forward that ignores the recommendation of the School Committee and forces more cuts to the schools. 

Please do what you can to support a budget that will begin to repair the damage from decades of underfunding by the city, which last year created a crisis that necessitated a mid-year appropriation for emergency funds for the schools. City Council voted unanimously for that mid-year appropriation, and all acknowledged that the schools were in crisis. 

Please do what you can to support a budget that provides long-term stability for the schools, instead of setting ourselves up for more stopgap emergency appropriations. 

Please work to fully fund the schools, repair the damage, and level up our services. Our children and our city deserve better than what the mayor is offering. 

Sincerely,

Name & Northampton Ward (or name of your town/city)

Find Your Ward

For more information

SOS – Budget Posts

School Committee – FY26 Budget: Transcripts & Video Recordings

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