State Aid to Public Schools is Insufficient to Meet Current Needs

Report on the Joint Meeting of Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee and Amherst and Pelham School Committees,  joined by the Amherst Town Council and Finance Committee, September 25 2025

This hybrid meeting was held in the library of the Amherst Regional High School, and simulcast over Amherst Media Channel 15, and was recorded.  

Present
Regional School Committee: Sarabess Kenney (Chair, Pelham), Anna Heard (Shutesbury), Bridget Hynes (Amherst), Deb Leonard (Amherst), Jennifer Shiao (Amherst), William Scherr (Pelham), Tim Shores (Leverett)

Pelham School Committee: Margaret Stancer (Chair), William Sherr, Sarahbess Kenney

Amherst School Committee: Jennifer Shiao (Chair), Bridget Hynes, Deb Lenoard

Amherst Town Council: Lynn Griesmer (President, District 2), Ana Devlin-Gauthier (District 5), Ndifreke Ette (District 1), Cathy Schoen (District 1),  Mandi Jo Hanneke (at-large), Andy Steinberg (at large), Bob Hegner (District 5), Jennifer Taub (District 4), Hala Heather Lord (District 3)

Staff:E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi, Superintendent of Schools), Shannon Bernacchia (Director of Finance, Amherst Public Schools)

With an assortment of school and town committee members present, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) presented their report on the finances of the Amherst Public Schools. MARS used publicly available data to create a summary about shifting school enrollments and demographics, as well as the municipal finances of the four towns in the regional district to create a standard report that MARS provides to school districts upon request. Amherst School Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) requested the report so that district leadership, the Regional School Committee, the Amherst Town Council, and town representatives from Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham will have a common set of facts to work with when framing discussions on fiscal sustainability. 

The impetus for the joint meeting between the town governments and the regional school committee stems from the cuts necessitated by the shortfall in funding to the regional schools for the past years and the directions from the town Finance Committee that the regional school district must reduce its spending because of declining enrollment and lack of increase in state aid. 

The bulk of the meeting was spent simply going over the numbers presented in the report with Julie Kelley, research analyst for MARS, and Steven Hemman, consultant services for MARS, sharing the data on a big screen. (Here are the reports for each town: Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury)

Dr. Xi originally requested the reports for further discussions between the district, school committees and town council to ensure they stem from the same information around financial sustainability. 

State Aid is Insufficient to Meet the Needs of Most Massachusetts Public Schools
MARS filled the reports with publicly available data to create a consolidated working document with relevant information for everyone involved in financial decisions for the schools. In the future, school committee members can update the information annually.

On September 16, the Amherst Finance Committee discussed the reports and some members were critical of the information gathered and representation of Amherst’s finances. While Kelley shared the data, she clarified there is an underlying issue when it comes to financial sustainability relating to the way Massachusetts establishes spending requirements based on enrollment through the Chapter 70 Program that governs state aid to public schools and the hold harmless policy, that ensures that school districts do not lose state aid due to declining enrollment . 

“The Chapter 70 formula is driven by student enrollment. It is affecting towns in hold harmless, regional districts and not a good way. It’s a failure,” Kelley explained. The status of hold harmless refers to the government’s assessment and practice of providing funding through Chapter 70 to ensure districts continue to get aid, according to the definitions on the MARS reports.

With the Chapter 70 formula based on a model budget created in 1992 and still used today, Kelley further explained, “We have 211 districts with this model budget which is not working…we have a failed Chapter 70 formula.” 

“It’s a (state) funding problem…It’s not the fault of the town, not the fault of the superintendent.”
Julie Kelley, Research Analyst for the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools

Kelley said MARS and other education organizations are working with legislators to change the formula to properly represent the funding schools need in Massachusetts. 

“It’s a (state) funding problem…It’s not the fault of the town, not the fault of the superintendent,” Kelley said.

Following the MARS presentation, Town Councilor Cathy Schoen, chair of the town’s Finance Committee, had a list of questions, based on the report’s comparisons to other districts and seeking clarifications about the report’s interpretation of free cash available and assumptions about Amherst’s high tax rate.

One question Schoen posed was about the number of students with special needs increasing in Amherst schools and if that was a trend across the state?

“I see across the state a fire increase in ELO (Extended Learning Opportunity Program), low income and students with disabilities,” Kelley answered. She clarified that the data was presented with percentages because the superintendent can use that information when considering the needs of individual schools.

According to a report from the district’s own Financial Stability Committee, total enrollment in the regional schools has decreased by 11% since 2019, with the number of students with disabilities increasing by 12% in the same time frame. 

In the end, Kelley praised the work done by the school district, school committees, and towns. “You have four towns that have through every challenge in the world thrown at them are doing a really good job,” she said.