Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra announced last week that she is increasing her proposed budget for the Northampton Public Schools by $1.3 million, bringing the total for the fiscal year beginning July 1 to $40,778,585.

If approved by the City Council, that would be an increase of more than $3 million, or about 8 percent, from the current year’s school budget. The proposed overall municipal budget is about $138.2 million, an increase of 4.4 percent from this year.

Most of the money added to the school budget, about $700,000, would come from the city’s fiscal stability stabilization fund. Also, $200,528 would be drawn from the new special education stabilization fund that was approved unanimously by the City Council on Thursday.

The mayor’s revised budget for Northampton Public Schools matches the amount proposed by Superintendent Portia Bonner in December. However, it falls about $2.1 million short of the $42,805,908 budget approved by eight members of the School Committee in April in an effort to maintain level services and avoid eliminating jobs. City money is needed to replace the federal pandemic-relief funds that are coming to an end and in many cases have paid for recurring expenses.

The City Council’ s Finance Committee, of which I am vice chair, Wednesday voted 3-0 (with Chair Rachel Maiore of Ward 7 absent) to recommend approval of the mayor’s revised budget.

However, the full City Council on Thursday was blocked from voting on the budget when Councilors Quaverly Rothenberg of Ward 3 and Jeremy Dubs of Ward 4 lodged a charter objection, delaying action until June 20. (Under the city charter, such an objection immediately ends debate and postpones a vote to the next council meeting.) Those councilors have supported the budget approved by the School Committee, which is 13 percent more than this year.

Councilors Rothenberg and Dubs also lodged charter objections to delay action until June 20 on the mayor’s proposal to use $800,000 in free cash for the special education stabilization fund, and to allocate $166,666 from a $500,000 Smith College gift to the city for the school department’s budget.

I favored the City Council voting on the budget Thursday so that the School Committee and superintendent would know how much money is allocated to the school department. The superintendent cannot make a final determination about how many jobs would be eliminated and what employees would be involuntarily transferred to a different position until next year’s budget is set.

My position was informed by an email sent Thursday by Jackson Street School Principal Lauren Brown to city councilors: “I am writing to let you know how very important it is for all of our educators to know what our budget will be as soon as possible. The longer we wait for a decision, the more educators we will lose. There are several people in my building who have been laid off who are applying for jobs elsewhere but who would very much prefer to stay at Jackson Street. … Please do not delay the vote until later this month. The human toll of this difficult budget season has already been too great. The time to vote is now.”

Earlier last week, I joined with at-large Councilor Marissa Elkins and School Committee members Gwen Agna, Holly Ghazey and Karen Foster Cannon in asking Superintendent Bonner to reconsider the budgets for the elementary schools because of our concern that Jackson Street School is the only one that would lose three classroom teachers and have anticipated classes of more than 25 students next year. We wrote in part: “There has been an effort at parity across these (four elementary) schools for the past few years and this shows great disparity.”

Finally, the City Council referred to the Finance Committee the mayor’s order requesting that a $3 million Proposition 2 1/2 general budget override be placed on the Nov. 5, 2024, presidential election ballot. If approved, that would result in increased property taxes for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025. The Finance Committee will discuss the override proposal at an as yet unspecified meeting before July 11.

The fiscal year 2025 budget proposed by the mayor is available here:

https://northamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/26218/FINAL-Mayors-FY2025-Budget-PDF

The budget also is available in print at the city clerk’s office, 210 Main St.; Forbes Library, 20 West St.; and Lilly Library, 19 Meadow St., Florence.

Community Preservation Act

The City Council on Thursday referred to the Finance Committee nine requests for Community Preservation Act funds totaling $1,473,235 recommended by the Community Preservation Committee. The Finance Committee, of which I am vice chair, will discuss them at 6 p.m., Tuesday, June 11, in the City Council chambers, 212 Main St.

The projects include $720,000 for a playground at the Ryan Road School that is accessible and inclusive to all, including children and caregivers of varying cognitive, sensory and social-emotional abilities; $300,000 for repairs to Memorial Hall; and $200,000 to Valley Community Development Corp. toward an affordable housing project at 27 Crafts Ave.

Smaller amounts are requested for the local Agricultural Preservation Restriction program; a park on Main Street from the art kiosk to Center Street; engineering and architectural work for the Parsons and Shepherd houses at Historic Northampton; and the removal of invasive species on property at the Lathrop Community where the city holds permanent conservation restrictions.

The Community Preservation Act was adopted by Northampton voters in 2005 and funds are generated by a 3 percent surcharge on property taxes, with matches from the state. Since its adoption, the CPA has funded more than 175 projects, including preservation of hundreds of acres of open space and agricultural land, building more than 200 units of affordable housing, creation of multi-use trails and new recreational fields and facilities, and restoration of more than 30 historic resources and structures.

The Finance Committee agenda, which includes descriptions of all the projects and a Zoom link for remote participation, is available here:

https://www.northamptonma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06112024-7923

Mass Central Rail Trail detour

The Mass Central Rail Trail from Stoddard Street to Jackson Street was closed Thursday and a detour will remain in effect through Aug. 30 during reconstruction of the drainage near Adare Place.

That is needed before the trail is repaved from Stoddard Street to Look Park.

All traffic, including cyclists and pedestrians, is detoured onto Stoddard, Prospect and Jackson streets.

Stan