GREENFIELD — The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to override the mayor’s veto on last month’s appropriation of $2.2 million from free cash to capital stabilization, following statements from several Greenfield teachers and community members encouraging councilors to do so.
“My veto was of your reduction in capital stabilization,” Mayor Roxann Wedegartner clarified to councilors, acknowledging her misunderstanding of what exactly she was vetoing. “It was definitely not a veto of putting money into capital stabilization, which we need to properly fund the fiscal year 2024 requests.”
At last month’s meeting, city councilors reduced Wedegartner’s $2.5 million request for the capital stabilization account by $300,000 in hopes she would write a new financial order to transfer $300,000 from free cash to the contract stabilization account instead. Precinct 3 Councilor Virginia “Ginny” DeSorgher explained this dollar amount, if transferred instead to contract stabilization, would help bring the account closer to the sum of $700,000 or $800,000, an amount previously suggested by School Committee Chair Amy Proietti to support contracts for instructional assistants and teachers. Wedegartner, however, vetoed that vote.
“Overriding the veto enables the $2.2 million to remain in capital stabilization, which is sufficient for now,” Wedegartner said, noting the $470,000 in contract stabilization was also sufficient.
Still, members of the Greenfield School Department pleaded with city officials to set aside the difference of $300,000 for the contract stabilization account. Not doing so, said Greenfield resident Rebecca Seyfried, would be “sending a message” to educators to start looking for a new job.
Tara Cloutier, a teacher at Greenfield High School, said she and other teachers “appreciated” last month’s vote that signaled to the mayor a desire to move $300,000 to contract stabilization. At the same time, Cloutier, who serves as vice president of the Greenfield Education Association teacher’s union, said it feels as though there has been a failure to communicate between local government bodies.
“I also ask you, as the governing body of this city, to figure out what’s going on here,” Cloutier said. “We’re the ones suffering the consequences of a lack of a system.”
The conversation comes as contract negotiations continue for teachers and instructional assistants working in Greenfield’s public schools. They have been without contracts since June 2021 and June 2022, respectively. Nearly 40 teachers and instructional assistants had walked to the Greenfield Common from the Greenfield Middle School prior to Wednesday’s City Council meeting as part of a “day of action” to raise awareness.
At-Large Councilor Michael Terounzo emphasized that the councilors’ inability to direct where money is transferred is not a matter of “passing the buck.” Noting the fact the John Zon Community Center all but cleared out following public comment, he reflected on how “everyone wanted to speak, but they don’t want to stay and listen.”
“We aren’t just trying to say this isn’t our job,” he said. “We literally cannot do it.”
Precinct 1 Councilor Katherine Golub came to the defense of the audience members who left, suggesting many of them were teachers who were exhausted after long days in the classroom.
DeSorgher said she was going to support overriding the veto, and while she understood City Council has no control over where money is allocated, she does believe more money is needed in contract stabilization.
“Maybe next month we’ll have that,” DeSorgher said. “It’s the holidays. Maybe that will happen on the next round.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.