AMHERST — Four classroom teachers and 10 paraprofessionals may lose their jobs at the town’s three elementary schools based on an expected cut of almost $900,000 from a so-called level services budget presented to the Amherst School Committee last Thursday.

With $26.7 million needed to provide the same level of services as this school year at Wildwood, Crocker Farm and Fort River schools, school officials will have remove $894,000 to meet the 2.5% increase advisory from the Town Council for fiscal 2024. The schools have a $25.81 million budget target that allows $629,445 in spending above this year’s $25.18 million budget.

Of what has to be trimmed to get to the budget target, $320,000 would come from salaries for 17.4 full-time equivalents, and most of the remaining reductions would come from $565,366 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money not available next year.

“This is initial information,” said Superintendent Michael Morris, cautioning that the numbers shouldn’t be seen as fixed or done.

The budget will be the subject of a hearing Feb. 28 at 6 p.m.

“It’s going to be a challenging budget year,” Morris said.

Morris, though, noted that Amherst is in the same boat as many other districts with budget gaps. He said the way to look at the proposed reductions are that they are real and will have an impact.

Douglas Slaughter, the school’s finance director, said earlier the gap to the level services was projected at $800,000, but that has since gone up due to higher anticipated expenses for out-of-placement special education students.

The classroom teachers would be trimmed at Crocker Farm and Wildwood schools, while the 10 paraprofessionals are across all schools.

In addition, the cuts include one special education teacher across the three schools, 1.5 math intervention positions at Fort River and Crocker Farm and a half-time receptionist in the central office.

School Committee Chairwoman Allison McDonald said recent surveys of families and teachers about the budget illustrated questions about the financial constraints and why Amherst residents are paying so much in taxes but not getting more financial flexibility in spending plans.

“It is hard to understand, particularly when we see and feel our taxes going up,” McDonald said.

Slaughter said it’s largely a matter of state and federal aid not keeping up with expenses.

“Local governments are funding a much larger share than they used to, and that’s a difficult burden to bear, especially when you have one knob to turn, and that’s the property tax,” Slaughter said.

Should the committee think about bringing in a higher number than advised by the Town Council, School Committee member Peter Demling observed that last year the committee asked for just $50,000 above guidance from the Town Council, but saw that request rejected.

“Yes, we can pass any level of budget proposal we want,” Demling said, but the committee doesn’t control the purse strings. “We could pass a level services budget if we so choose. But that’s all it is, it’s a proposal — it’s a request to the town of Amherst.”

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