Finance Committee Criticizes MARS Report on Regional Schools. Raises Possibility of Tax Override for Roads.

By Maura and Art Keene

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

The Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools Reports
The Finance Committee discussed at their meeting on September 16, four reports  prepared for the Amherst and Amherst Regional School Committees by the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS).  These reports use publicly available data to create a summary about shifting school enrollments and demographics, as well as municipal finances of the four towns in the regional district, and are a standard report that MARS provides to school districts upon request. Amherst School Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) requested the reports so that the district leadership, the Regional School Committee, and town representatives from Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham have a common set of facts to work with when framing discussions on fiscal sustainability. A representative from MARS is tentatively scheduled to attend a joint meeting of the School Committees on September 25 at 5:00 p.m. 

Finance Committee members were critical of the reports, particularly sections that focused on Amherst’s municipal finances, which Town Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke characterized as “misleading.” For example, she asked why the total amount of free cash was included in the report.

Unspent budgeted funds or surplus revenue is certified as free cash in the fall, after a full accounting of the previous fiscal year is complete. According to the report, “Amherst maintains a significant 2025 free cash balance of $10,422,416 which represents 10.05% of the general budget.” The issue of free cash has been raised in recent years, with some residents questioning whether the end-of-year surplus could be reduced in order to have more money in the operating budget for town services, such as school funding. 

Finance Committee members also took issue with some of the data that pertained to the schools themselves. Councilor Bob Hegner indicated that he felt that use of certain figures, such as the percentage of students who have disabilities, are low-income, or are high-need are not relevant  because numbers, not percentages, drive costs. This topic  has come up frequently with respect to school costs, with School Committee members often explaining that as enrollment in our elementary and regional schools has declined, the percentage of students needing extra support (high need students, English-language learners, low-income students, students with disabilities) has risen. This shift to a proportionally higher-need population is one of the drivers of average per-pupil spending.

In general, Finance Committee members questioned what the school committees would actually be able to do with this data.  They also suggested that the school committees present their own questions at the next School Committee meeting, when  a MARS representative will be present to answer questions.

Planning Ahead for FY26
Members of the Finance Committee discussed planning for the upcoming budget. They hope to learn more from municipal departments, as well as the schools and the library about specific stress points or unknowns for the next year, including unsettled union contracts and uncertainty around federal funds. They discussed whether it would be possible to meet with town department heads earlier than usual to get a sense of these issues. They also discussed wanting to see certain metrics ahead of the annual financial indicators meeting, which has been scheduled for November 3. Some of this information may be challenging to obtain due to vacancies in several key Finance Department roles, although  new Finance Director Sean Mangano is slated to start in October. 

An Override for Roads? 
At the end of the meeting, Hanneke raised the possibility of a tax override  to fund road work. Committee members discussed that  the town’s voters would have to authorize an override specifically for “capital use” and then funds raised through the increased taxes could be used to complete road repair within the same year that the funds were collected. The Committee wanted more information on how this would work and, given past challenges with securing contractors for road work, whether it would be possible to guarantee that Amherst would be able to get the work done on time.