NORTHFIELD — The town’s share of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District budget generated nearly an hour of discussion at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting.
After the Finance Committee recommended a level-funded assessment of about $4.74 million for fiscal year 2027, voters agreed by majority to pay the School Committee’s full request of nearly $4.95 million, representing a 4.48% increase from the current year.
Based on data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), enrollment at the district has dropped by 14.76% over the last five years. Of Pioneer Valley Regional School’s 190 students, 84 are Northfield residents, Finance Committee member Lindsay McCarthy said, which marks a 28.2% drop since the 2021-2022 school year, according to the district’s “FY27 Budget Book.”
“This, coupled with rising school budgets year over year, causes concern,” McCarthy said. “The math is simple: increased budgets for fewer students. This is not sustainable.”
Selectboard Chair Barbara “Bee” Jacque, who abstained from the amendment vote, described the Finance Committee not recommending the assessment as “a flare.”
“What they’re really doing is sending up a flare and saying that, going forward, this is not totally sustainable,” Jacque said. “We’re not in a position to comment on education; we’re talking about the funding overall.”
Monday’s discussion mirrored the conversation at Bernardston’s Annual Town Meeting last week, in which the Selectboard proposed a amendment to reduce Bernardston’s assessment to Pioneer to less than $3.57 million, compared to the $4.01 million assessment requested by the School Committee.
In Bernardston, School Committee Chair Melissa Gerry told voters in attendance that under state law, the town cannot amend the amount it is being assessed by the regional school district, and if the town appropriated less than the full amount, it would be considered a failure to pass the budget. She said failure to pass the budget would force the district to operate on a one-twelfth budget based on the current fiscal year’s figures and would result in numerous programs being cut.
After a lengthy discussion, Bernardston residents voted 59-44 to reject the proposed amendment to reduce the Pioneer assessment to $3.57 million, and then voted 56-44 to pass the $4.01 million sum.
On Monday, Pioneer School Committee member Melissa Osborne motioned to amend Northfield’s assessment to the nearly $4.95 million requested by the School Committee.
“I would encourage everyone to think about the schools and pass the budget for our kids,” Osborne said.
Many residents and parents expressed support.
“What we decide tonight will directly impact children in our town,” said parent Amanda Zellman.
According to Pioneer Superintendent Patricia Kinsella, budget reductions would have led to cuts to programs and positions, including the preschool, athletics, behaviorists and reading specialists at the elementary schools, and electives and extracurricular activities at Pioneer Valley Regional School.
“When we talk about cutting Pre-K, sports, behavioral support and reading programs, it might sound like a budget decision, but it’s not,” Zellman continued. “It’s a decision about whether our children get the support they need at the most critical stage of their development. … If we take that away, we’re not saving money, we’re removing the foundation and expecting everything else to somehow hold.”
“We cannot hold children hostage for an issue that was created by adults,” said Lynn Hansell, a former educator at Warwick Community School.
Several residents claimed a level-funded assessment, per the Finance Committee’s recommendation, would cause families to leave the district.
“We worry as a town about economic development,” Selectboard member Sarah Kerns said. “If we have schools in which we are penalizing the families by not having preschool, by not having sports, by not having arts — that in no way supports the economic development in Northfield.”
Many residents who spoke against providing the full assessment voiced issues they or their children experienced with the school, including bullying.
Amy Neil described her vote against the amendment as a choice she does not “take lightly.”
“This was not a vote of opposition to education, it’s about accountability,” Neil said. “Additional investment cannot be justified without clear evidence that existing resources are being managed effectively and that … obligations to students are consistently being met.”
Resident Bob Henry claimed the “cuts can be made elsewhere.” He compared the salary increases for administrators, between 4% and 10%, according to the School Committee’s calculations, to “me getting a pay raise and buying a new car and telling my kids now I can’t take them to the ballgame, I can’t take them to baseball practice, because I spent my new salary on me, not my kids.”
In response to residents’ comments, Kinsella stressed that enrollment across the district is expected to grow, according to a study by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. She reminded attendees that the district sent more than $740,000 of surplus funding back to its member towns a few years ago.
“I fear that there is a short memory about what the district has done,” Kinsella said. “We thought when we did that, that it would be a strong signal that we were honest workers, we were good financial stewards and that when we were flushed, we would give money back to the taxpayers.”
One hundred and sixty-three voters were in favor of amending the assessment to the School Committee’s request of $4.95 million, while 32 people voted against it.
Other articles
In other Town Meeting decisions, voters swiftly passed several free cash transfers, including $150,000 to replace an EMS response vehicle, $88,000 for a hybrid police cruiser, $300,000 to replace the Highway Department’s roadside mower, $8,000 to purchase a new lift gate that attaches to a highway truck and moves heavy equipment in and out of the truck, and $26,000 for heating and cooling improvements at Town Hall.
The only article that failed to pass involved the installation of cameras at the Northfield Transfer Station “for operational safety concerns,” according to the warrant. Without any discussion, the article failed by just one vote.
Voters unanimously passed changes to town bylaws codifying the Fire Department and Finance Committee’s operations. This will lead to two changes in the committee’s composition, formally reducing it from six to five members and preventing members from serving simultaneously on the committee and other elected town boards or committees.
According to Jacque, who described the bylaw as a “technicality,” this change will prompt Finance Committee and Selectboard member Dan Campbell to step away from the committee.
Article 24 asked residents to consider adopting a bylaw authorizing the town clerk “to assign appropriate numbers to sections, subsections, paragraphs, and subparagraphs of town general and zoning bylaws, where none are approved by Town Meeting” and to “make non-substantive editorial revisions to the numbering.” According to the warrant, this would improve the process of integrating new bylaws into the town’s codification system.
Voters passed an amendment proposed by Joe Graveline to replace the words “non-substantive editorial” with “clerical” after Graveline claimed the initial wording was “subjective.”
