NORTHAMPTON — In preparation for developing a coordinated budget for the next fiscal year, a joint meeting of the City Council, School Committee, Trustees of the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, and the superintendents of both school districts happened on Jan. 30.
Leading the meeting was Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra who have a presentation reviewing the financial condition of the city, revenue and expenditure forecasts, and other relevant information in order to lead development of a coordinated budget for fiscal year 2026.
Sciarra began the meeting by acknowledging the concerns of rights and safety of Northampton community and the changing information regarding federal funding and resources in light of the Trump Administration’s first 10 days in office.
“In this state of incredibly hard uncertainty and perilousness, producing or finishing something like this presentation has at moments seemed a little bit farcical as so many things are up in the air,” said Sciarra. “I can say that both Senators Markey and Warren had zooms today with mayor’s offices across the state and my office also was part of a regional nonprofit call today and communities including areas have been reporting various impacts and weirdness with federal funds, but of course the legality of this is still highly questionable.”\
In the meantime, Sciarra said the city could only focus on itself and those in city government were still here and ready to serve constituents.
Sciarra’s full slideshow, created by her and Finance Director Charlene Nardi, was used alongside her presentation is available on the city website under the Mayor’s Office page.
The first half of Sciarra’s presentation detailed the current state of the city regarding its financial condition and how FY25 has played out to this point. The other half was focused on predictions and game planning a strategy of budgeting into the next fiscal year.
Sciarra’s presentation detailed as the city prepares its budgeting process for the next fiscal year, they would be aggressive in pushing revenue toward schools in order to avoid recreating a deficit.
“These projections are very aggressive, and they carry with them risk, but to not recreate the deficit in the Northampton Public Schools, we need to find and push the recurring revenue to incorporate the $2 million increase into the base budget, so that it does not become a budget later,” Sciarra explained. “This is what we are projecting to do, but again, it comes with risk.”
Sciarra added her team is in the process of again assessing with departments what the potential impact of losing federal funding and grants would mean for them in preparation for this new budget. She also noted the impact Chapter 70 funding could have on the district if a formula change occurred, something State Sen. Jo Comerford and other local legislators have begun advocating for at the state level, according to Sciarra.
When opened for discussion among the joint bodies, Northampton School Committee member from Ward 4 Michael Stein asked Sciarra about her approach in working to adequately fund the schools.
“We made cuts and adjustments in other budgets last year. Every year, Director Nardi and I go through an extensive process with each department and look at their trends over the years and make adjustments and we will continue to do that. We will likely have to do that more aggressively like we’re pushing revenues more aggressively, which could lead to deficits in their budgets, but to be able to make up this ground we’re going to have to do that more, while also recognizing there are some increases, we really need to me,” Sciarra said. She used the Fire Department as an example of an increase still needed to be made through this process. “We look at every department and talk in depth with the directors about their needs and work very hard to meet needs while being as absolutely close to the minimum of what they need for a budget every year.”
Stein added he was “struck” by the language being used when talking about the needs from other departments and asked if there could be a more public process of a needs-based budget being discussed more publicly.
“We were pretty clear on what we needed last year,” Stein said. “From my perspective, I would love for the school to be talked about like the other departments, how the needs for our children are similar to the needs of public safety, and how we’re going to make a plan and work to get there and that they’re really taking into consideration against other needs in the city when we’re putting in an overall budget. Most the time it just sounds like it’s a burden that education takes up so much oxygen and it’s a problem.”
Sciarra responded by saying she welcomed a more in-depth conversation and argued the school committee did not have a “very nuanced” conversation on the needs and looking at different scenarios and what they mean.
“I would agree that the School Committee should have a more deliberative process around this as I have with city departments, and I would be very welcomed to be part of that. It is not at all the case that the schools are a burden, I think they are our primary concern which is why we have worked so hard to direct as much funding as we can. Two things can be true, we have directed historic amounts of funding to Northampton Public Schools but because of the use of one time funds, with federal ESSR and other funds, that still resulted in a deficit despite an almost 9% increase this year because there was so much funding that no longer is available because it was not reoccurring revenue. So I really hope that the School Committee this year can have a very full and robust conversation on what the real needs are and talk about future planning.”
The FY26 budget calendar will continue for the city on April 16 which is the deadline for Northampton Public Schools and Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School to submit adopted budgets to the mayor. The mayor must submit the proposed City of Northampton FY26 budget to the city council on May 16.
June 30 is the deadline for City Council to hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed FY26 budget. A recording of the full meeting discussion and Sciarra’s presentation can be viewed via the Northampton Government Video Archive YouTube Channel.
