School Committee Candidates Focus on Budget Shortfalls at League of Women Voters Forum

League of Women Voters of Amherst Candidate Forum, October 23, 2025

By Maura Keene

This forum was held in the Amherst Regional High School library and was livestreamed and recorded by Amherst Media.

Six candidates for the five seats on the Amherst School Committee responded to questions submitted by the audience. The six candidates are incumbents Bridget Hynes, Deb Leonard, and Sarah Marshall, and new candidates Esther Azar, Andrew Hart, and Laura Hunter. Each candidate was allowed 90 seconds for each question and one minute for a closing statement. All candidates answered the same questions in varying order. Franklin County resident and League of Women Voters of Amherst member Cathy Campbell served as the moderator.

Amherst Media also has five-minute recorded statements from each of the candidates on its website.

The following is a summary of the candidates’ answers to the questions posed.

Describe One policy or Approach that Is Not Working and How You Would Handle It Differently

Most of the candidates concentrated on the budgeting process for the schools as needing improvement, especially at the regional level. Marshall stated that the “budget process at regional level is very challenging in this era when funding is falling so short and the needs in the schools are so great” She called the process “painful and somewhat contentious,” and suggested better communication, better planning, and continued advocacy at the state level to make the process smoother.

Hynes pointed out that the schools (regional and elementary) have lost $2 million over the past 2 years, and those cuts have “had tremendous impacts on teachers, administrative staff, and people who mean a lot to our individual students.” She pointed to a fiscal sustainability report that she and Leonard wrote and the testimony she gave to the state House Ways and Means Committee regarding charter school reimbursement as examples of ways to ameliorate the shortfall.

Leonard also agreed that the budget was a major challenge. She stated that the school committee needs to “get ahead instead of being reactive” in terms of budgeting—thinking ahead of time where we need to be and working backwards.

Azar was more direct, stating that the town’s money is “going to places that are not prioritizing our children, and our children and our families make up the largest percentage of this community, and we need to take care of them.” She cited replacing police cars every three years as an example of excess spending.

Hart spoke for developing a strategic framework for the Town Council and School Committee to work together in order to develop a funding plan for not just one year, but for five years to agree what “we want our schools to become, so when we have these prolonged budget battles like we did last year, we can check ourselves with what we agreed upon.”

Hunter went in a different direction, speaking for greater support for the Superintendent and involving input from families, students, educators and paraeducators in the Superintendent evaluation process. “We have so many opportunities for collaboration with seasoned, brilliant, caring education professionals, and we need to hear what their experience is in the schools.”

Better Support for Marginalized Students

Azar said that “there’s a difference between inclusion and belonging. We have a responsibility to create belonging for all of our students.” She said that policies must take into account diverse learning, identities, and skill sets. She said that she is a “multi-sensory, trauma informed educator” who tries to think about all the different sensory processing things that can be used to engage a child and needs to be part of classrooms.

Marshall stated that neurodiversity needs to be incorporated into diversity and inclusion policies. She also stressed that the School Committee needs to defend the budget to continue to maintain the services for the needs of struggling students.

Hynes said, “every student deserves to walk into the school building and be seen, welcomed, and appreciated.” She worked to get the “Welcoming Schools Initiative” adopted and implemented in all schools. The initiative offers training to every staff member. She is also chair of the School Equity Advisory Committee, which reviewed equity in the regional schools to develop an improvement plan.

Leonard said that she is working with the district leadership and teachers to provide a safe, welcoming environment. She stressed that educators are stretched thin, because they have been asked to do more with fewer resources and less time, which goes back to issues with the budget. “We need to put our money where our values are,” she said.

Hart said that curriculum should “meet students where their difference is, instead of asking them to meet us where we want them.” He also warned of making students with disabilities and their families feel like they are being blamed for higher costs. “I’ve heard [Town] Councilors use that exact language, which is disheartening,” he said.

Hunter stated that the schools cannot ignore institutionalized racism or the fact that children are marginalized for being neurodiverse. She pointed to the Integrated Learning Center at Wildwood school that is a magnet program for students with severe learning disabilities and special needs and serves those children well, but said the schools must find similar ways to address inequities caused. by racism, homophobia, and transphobia.

Visions for the Caminantes Dual-Language Program

Leonard pointed out that cuts to the World Language program at the Middle School over the past two years would preclude extending Caminantes to seventh and eighth grade students, With the cuts, middle school students are not even able to progress to the second year of a language at the high school after taking two years at the middle school.

Hunter recommended talking to the students and teachers in the program to determine the best way to continue Caminantes in the sixth grade after sixth graders move to the middle school next year, and not relying on a “top-down” process.

Hart said that his daughter is part of the one fifth grade class at Fort River that is not part of Caminantes, and that classroom has had a lot of challenges. He noted the difficulty of having two tracks in the school. The Caminantes program is not being accessible to all learners, so new students and those with certain learning issues are concentrated in the one other class, and there is not adequate funding to support them. He said Caminantes is a “fantastic idea, but should be rethought so that it is more equitable to all students and faculty.”

Hynes stated that “Caminantes is a gem in our system.” She said that, not only do young students learn a second language much quicker, but it helps them be stronger academically all around. “This is a program I value and want to keep,” she added, but resource distribution isn’t as equitable as it should be. She suggested expanding the program might solve some of the problems.

Azar noted that Caminantes did not get approval from the other towns in the region, so could not be expanded beyond sixth grade as it stands, but she maintained that it is an important program that may require some creative thinking to resolve some of the issues.

Marshall stated that continuing Caminantes in the sixth grade when it moves to the Middle School would simply be a matter of having the teachers involved moving with the students. She added that the School Committee has never discussed expanding the program beyond grade six.

Possible Proposition 2-1/2 Override

None of the candidates supported a Proposition 2-1/2 override to fund the schools, although Marshall thought it might be worth trying. Instead, they offered different ways to deal with the inadequate funds available. Hynes mentioned advocacy at the state level for charter school funding reform that did not place such a heavy financial burden on local public schools, and also looking at how town funds are distributed. She noted that state aid to rural schools is increasing in the coming year, although Leonard noted that this provision was reduced by the governor. Leonard noted that the Fair Share Amendment raised $2 billion last year that is to go to transportation and public education, but Amherst schools saw little of it, because most of K-12 aid went to more needy districts.

Hunter spoke for starting with an “abundance model, rather than a deficit model” in setting the budget to fully fund the schools and attract new families to the schools. She also advocated voting in Town Councilors who support the schools and will “fight hard” to fully fund them. Hart also agreed with putting the onus back on the Town Council to bring in more revenue and expand the tax base. Marshall pointed out that Amherst is not the only district by far that is facing “terrible financial headwinds,” but that the School Committee can only control expenses, not revenues despite strong advocacy locally and at the state, so “we have to make cuts, and we’ve been doing that over the years, and it’s super painful.” She doubted if all four towns in the region would support a tax override, but said it is “maybe worth trying.”

Azar stated that even though the Town Council says that “they are interested in diversity, equity, and inclusion—that they’re interested in our schools, the voting record doesn’t show that. More money is going to things that I think are not where we need them.” She cited leaky school roofs, while the Jones Library project is costing millions of dollars. She concluded, ”We need to take care of our children, and we’re not taking care of them if we’re not paying for their schooling.”

Priorities for the Superintendent

Hunter said that she has seen a lot of instability and disruption in school leadership during the 10 years she has lived in Amherst. She spoke of revising the “antiquated and dysfunctional and illogical hiring practices in the district that [are] characterized by cronyism and corruption,” and use established best practices. Hynes spoke to setting priorities for the Superintendent and determining how the School Committee can support her. She also pointed to the redistricting plan when the new elementary school opens as a priority now, establishing the sixth grade academy at the Middle School, and determining graduation standards, now that MCAS is no longer required.

Marshall noted that an important priority is the strategic educational plan for the schools, which is almost complete, the first one in several years. She also said that it is important to stabilize school leadership. Azar stated that the Superintendent needs more financial support to get things done. She also stressed that communication needs to be improved. Hart agreed that communication is a top priority, and that a process needs to be established to make it easier to reach families. As a parent of a fifth grader, he also felt that the sixth grade move was a priority.

Prior Experience

Hart said he is a multimedia producer, writer, and graphic designer who has been working in higher education communications for 18 years, so he can bring specific attention to communication to the School Committee to be able to communicate to the public, to families, and to Town Council about “the incredible importance that our educational system has to all of us.”

Azar said that she has autism, ADD, and ADHD, which allows her to think “out of the box.” She said she is a “systems thinker, and I know how to interrupt systems and to shift them.” She is also a mediator, restorative justice circle keeper, a rabbi, a therapist, and has been an educator for many years.

Leonard cited her love for data and data diving that has helped her to analyze the financial matters of the school system. She stated that she has worked well with Hynes who is a creative thinker who sees the big picture. She added that she is a team player who listens well.

Hynes noted that she has learned a lot in her two years on the School Committee. She stated that she learned to integrate diverse perspectives from her early work in international education. She has a passion for designing inclusive programs, doing educational research, program evaluation, and school improvement plans.

Hunter noted her involvement in her children’s schools throughout their education, becoming co-chair of the Parent Guardian Organization. She is a social worker who works in public health and has been in higher education since 2005.

Marshall cited her involvement in her daughter’s classrooms and her experience on several town committees before joining the School Committee two years ago. She said she is familiar with how town government works and that she has been a high school science and math teacher in the past.

Closing Statements

Leonard: “I’ve worked really hard and found that School Committee is this really steep learning curve, and I would like to have my Tuesdays back plus all the other evenings, but I feel like If I was not elected, which is of course a possibility, that the work that I’ve done would leave with me. I don’t feel like I’ve been able to build on it in a way that it gets integrated into the institution. And I think there’s been a disruption in our processes since before COVID. I’ve gone back and looked at previous work in packets, and I feel like there’s some continuity that I can provide with the institutional knowledge that I’ve developed over the past two years. So I’m asking for one of your five votes.”

Hynes: “First, I’m an Amherst parent, then I’m an educational leader, and I’m an advocate for equity. I have been involved from elementary school, through middle school, and beyond. I ran for election in a time of crisis. And I stepped up for the community at a time very few people wanted to, because I saw I had the skills to bring to the table. I don’t love being here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and this week on Friday, but it’s really important to me. I feel like Amherst schools have amazing teachers, but they (the schools) have slipped. It’s time to recommit to excellence, to equity, and to community partnership to make them better. I promise you I’ll lead with a thoughtful heart, and I ask for one of your five votes.”

Hart: “I’m a parent, the parent of a fifth grader and a ninth grader, and I owe so much to the teachers and to the administrators of these schools for helping me raise my kids. So far, they’re doing okay. I have a strong dedication to communication and figuring out how to help people hear each other and listen. And I think we need that so much today, especially in our town. I’m a creative problem solver. I’m a parent who wants to give back to the schools, to the educators, and to all these great people that I feel indebted to.”

Hunter: “I ran two years ago because I was horrified and distressed by the way that the administration had betrayed our district. I’m running now because I have been watching what’s been happening, and I’m eager to put in systems that will last well beyond this particular superintendent. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that our administrators don’t stick around, and we need to fix that problem. And I believe that the supervision system that I’ve been talking about will help support that stability. I also think that my connections to our schools and to our educators is the biggest gift that I have personally and that I can give back by creating spaces for the educators, the students, and the families to really have their voices heard and amplified in a way that has not been happening–especially the educators really need a chance to talk.”

Marshall: “Toni Morrison wrote, ‘Don’t let anybody convince you this is the way the world is and therefore must be. It must be the way it ought to be.’ We, all of us here, want to give our students the best, and more money to do just that. But one of the most frustrating aspects of school committee service for me has been the collision between our ideals and limiting realities, whether those are financial, time, legal, or bandwidth. Nevertheless, the current Amherst and Regional School Committees have worked collaboratively and productively during the last 22 months to shift our schools closer to what they ought to be by stabilizing somewhat district leadership, defending our budgets, creating policies to protect our students, and advocating for changes at the state level. I urge voters to reelect all incumbents so we don’t lose our human capital and momentum when we are making progress on many important projects and issues.”

Azar sang, “You do not carry this all alone.” She then concluded, “It’s hard to sit for an hour and talk. It’s stressful. It’s hard to listen. So, I just want to take a moment to ground us a little bit. Thank you hosting and for moderating. Thank you for all of the answers. You can look at my website if you want to know more. I’ve said enough for tonight.”