LEVERETT — Amid concerns over spending increases that are not sustainable for the town’s taxpayers, Leverett Elementary School officials are being advised to trim the $2.44 million fiscal year 2027 budget proposal.
At a joint hearing with the Selectboard and Finance Committee last week, the Leverett School Committee was instructed to find ways to cut $9,000 from the preferred budget. That budget has a $91,236, or 3.88%, increase over this fiscal year’s $2.35 million budget.
Both the Selectboard and Finance Committee have asked all departments to prepare two budgets — one with a 2.5% increase and the other that is level-funded. A $9,000 reduction would bring the school budget increase down to 3.5%.
School Committee Chair Marnie Genre said the $2.44 million budget went through a thoughtful review by administrators, and that presenting a level-funded budget would mean cuts to staff.
Genre outlined the ways the school reaches out to the community, from first graders reading aloud to senior citizens, to students and staff putting on an art show at Leverett Crafts & Arts. “In short, Leverett Elementary School is a relationship builder,” Genre said.
Genre added that Leverett has the largest enrollment and smallest staff of the four schools — Shutesbury, Erving and Swift River — that make up School Union 28.
Superintendent Shannon White-Cleveland said cuts could affect the quality of the school. “That will impact student programs,” she said.
White-Cleveland also noted the draw of the school for School Choice families, who have decided to come to Leverett for the quality of the staff.
But those on the Selectboard and Finance Committee said they worry about bringing the current budget proposal to Annual Town Meeting in the spring, especially with an unknown increase in the assessment for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools.
Selectboard member Jed Proujansky said the town’s budget is nearing its breaking point.
Another $700 increase in property taxes for a $500,000 home would drive people from Leverett, said Finance Committee member Nancy Grossman.
“It will only be a town for higher-income, two-income households,” Grossman said.
“Eventually, we will become a bedroom community of Amherst, instead of a town of our own,” said Steve Weiss, a member of the Finance Committee and president of the Leverett Education Foundation.
Finance Committee Chair Phil Carter referenced the challenges facing the nearby Pelham Elementary School, where more than half of the students at that K-6 school choice-in, and there has been preliminary talk about whether it will be viable for the long-term.
Carter said making some cuts to the school budget would help Leverett Elementary avoid the possible fate of Pelham Elementary.
Caitlin Anderson May, director of finance and operations for Union 28, said that Leverett Elementary has been using School Choice to fill out classrooms, rather than sustain operations. Of the 135 students at the school, 29 attend through School Choice.
“I don’t see that as a parallel situation,” Anderson May said.
And Anderson May noted that the school is already streamlined under the leadership of Siby Adina, the school principal.
“Siby’s been amazing at doing more with less,” Anderson May said.
Adina said officials will see what can be done to tighten the budget prior to Town Meeting.