The following letter from School Psychologist Kira Henninger was emailed to Mayor Sciarra and City Council members on 6-6-2024. Kira Henninger is a Certified School Psychologist working in the Northampton Public School District. She was awarded 2024 Massachusetts School Psychologist of the Year.
Mayor Sciarra and City Councilors,
I am deeply troubled by the recent meeting regarding the discussions of the School Department’s budget. There is a lot I could say about what I have witnessed these last several months, but I know you have received hundreds of emails already, and I’ll try to focus on what is most salient now and for moving forward in the best interest of the Northampton community.
- Stan Moulton and Marissa Elkins, along with School Committee members Gwen Agna, Karen Foster Cannon, and Holly Ghazey have advocated for only 1 elementary school. They have done so without having the full picture of information/needs at the district level. Yes, the JSS class sizes were problematic and should be addressed, as is the fact that Leeds does not have any Math Interventionist and BSS will only have a .8 Reading Interventionist. Did any of you consult the data about the need for these services at these schools? There is also only 1 Reading Interventionist at JFK, which is not enough to address the over 50 students in need of Tier II reading intervention. At the most recent SC meeting, there were also discussions about how devastating it will be to lose an English teacher (English is a required class to take all 4 years of HS and this eliminates sections of classes that will be available to all students), and the School Adjustment Counselor (that is the only general education interventionist for mental health concerns for students). These are just a handful of the positions which could have also used your time and advocacy, but somehow were deemed unworthy. Your actions were not fair or equitable.
- I am extremely concerned about the toll this process has taken on staff, parents, students and community members (and also you all as elected officials) this year and that the current plan (not doing anything different for next year) will continue to hurt our schools and our community members.
- I understand that the plan is to build in the “extra money” you’ve proposed for the FY25 budget so that this will lessen the need for a higher increase to the FY26 budget. However, even with that “extra money”, a planned 3% increase will still include hundreds of thousands of dollars needed in cuts beyond the 20 positions we are currently losing this year.
- I keep hearing CC and SC members saying that they want to work together to discuss budget concerns/identify potential solutions so that this doesn’t continue to happen. Mayor, will you follow through with this request and set a collaborative committee of the SC Budget and Property Subcommittee and CC Finance Subcommittee members to begin this work? If that were to happen, I assume this new committee could also develop a plan to present a PILOT program to Smith College and Mass General (Cooley Dickinson) and advocate at the state level regarding changes to funding formulas.
- I believe that Charlene Nardi spoke about a solution to fully fund the Northampton Public Schools at the last CC meeting. Director Nardi reported at the last CC meeting that the current estimates for money available for free cash for FY26 include the following (which according to her is a more aggressive position than previously in an attempt to not underestimate as has been done previously):
- $1.7 million in regular free cash left after the amendment orders.
- $3.1 million in the ARPA loss revenue funds
- $3.6 million in new money next year
- For a total of $8.4 million….so that seems to me like there is $2 million there that could choose to allocate to the schools to fully fund them with recurring revenue (not one-time funds), leaving $6.4 million left for you to choose to put in stabilization funds, or something else. Our stabilization funds are healthy. Northampton is ranked #1 in the state of MA for a budget of our size.
Mayor, there is still time to add money to save all of the absolutely needed positions that currently provide needed supports and services to the students in Northampton. Your statement at the last CC meeting that the current budget with amendments is not going to have such a detrimental effect is just not true. I will provide 1 example of the impacts of these cuts. Below is the Reading data for all K-3 students for Fall, Winter, and Spring. As you see in the graphic, in the spring, every grade had fewer students falling in the at-risk range (red and yellow bars) compared to the fall. However, you will note that there are still MANY students that are still falling at the at-risk range. This is with CURRENT staffing levels, which have been able to support students through intervention. When we aren’t able to close the gap in academic needs, there will be more special education referrals and more than likely more students ending up on IEP’s as we will no longer be able to meet their needs through general education supports. If we do not close the gap in reading scores in the early elementary grades, the gap will continue to widen and it will be harder and harder for these students to close that gap.
It seems very simple to me. Do you want to fund our schools now and meet the needs of students, or do you want to fund the schools in a couple of years because you are legally mandated to provide IEP services to students you failed now?
Please move the conversation back towards the investment in a free and appropriate public education for ALL of the students of Northampton. Please use data and facts to inform your decisions, rather than assumptions.
Not having an education is a public health issue and the negative outcomes of this are very well documented in the literature. Please make the moral and ethical choice. This is also the financially responsible choice.
Kira Henninger, Ph.D.
Certified School Psychologist
Massachusetts School Psychologist of the Year, 2024
