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Date: 6/24/2019
AGAWAM – On June 17, the Agawam City Council voted to approve the fiscal year 2020 budget with adjustments in the areas of stormwater and public schools. The stormwater budget was cut $100,000 and the public schools budget was cut $250,000.
Several citizens utilized citizen speak time during the meeting to voice their opinion on the proposed Agawam Public Schools budget.
Feeding Hills resident Jill Simpson addressed the Council. “I can stand before you tonight and rattle off a bunch of statistics, things that we all do in the classroom. But my question to you, Councilors, is before you make your educated vote tonight on the school budget, have you done your homework? When is the last time that you have stepped into a classroom to see what actually goes on on a day-to-day basis?,” Simpson said.
Simpson continued, “It’s not the classroom that it was when you were in school, when I was in school, even when my own children were in school. The dynamics have changed greatly. Family values have changed. Social norms have changed. Just how children are nowadays has changed. So I hope you have done your homework and have stepped in. It’s easy to read numbers [and] it’s easy to read stats, but until you put yourself in that classroom and see what goes on on a day-to-day basis, 180 days of the year, you do not know what you’re voting on. So please tell me that you have done your homework.”
Members of the Agawam School Committee also spoke at the meeting, including Shelley Reed. “Here in Agawam, we have 1,150 students who are economically disadvantaged. Of that, we are responsible for the needs of 40 homeless children [and] 20 children who are in foster care. We have 670 students with disabilities such as ADD, anxiety, depression, autism and learning disabilities. There are 190 children in our Early Childhood Center. Out of 190 children, 86 have been diagnosed with autism. In addition to teaching all of our students the core subjects, the staff has to deal with drug abuse, vaping, underage drinking, bullying, suicide, transgender issues and school safety including teaching them how not to get shot in school. It’s unbelievably sad that it’s the reality of our day,” Reed said.
Reed continued, “Thanks to you and the School Committee and our staff, Agawam has an outstanding school system. We are constantly recognized for our special education programs and how we deal with the social emotional needs of our students. Why would we not keep it that way?”
School Committee members Kerri O’Connor, Anthony Bonavita and vice chairperson Wendy Rua also made comments.
Councilor George Bitzas shared with the Council, “I would like to thank all of the teachers and people who came and spoke to us tonight. One speaker asked us if we did our homework. Yes, I did the homework. I was a teacher. My wife was a teacher. My daughter is a teacher, not in Agawam [but] in West Springfield. I hope you all got educated tonight. These are the people that know about the school budget. We have the whole School Committee supporting it.”
Bitzas continued, “Even if you cut something, you don’t make too much affect on the taxpayer’s base, but we do harm the students in our education system. I have faith [in] the mayor. The mayor came here and we spoke many, many times. He cares about taxes and taxpayers as well as we do. I own a house [and] my children own a house in Agawam. We pay taxes. I don’t want to raise taxes, but I don’t want to punish the kids and not have good education.”
Councilor Dino Mercadante voiced his opinion regarding the proposed budget. “I want to be crystal clear about something here. Our intent is not to hurt anybody. Not the school department, not the kids, not the police department, not the fire department, not the DPW. They all need proper funding. As Councilors, we are sworn to represent an entire town: young, old, limited income, business owners, town employees and the like,” Mercadante said.
Mercadante continued, “I want to give you one example that was shared with us over the last month or so. 26.4 percent of the population of Agawam are over 60 years old. We have to be considerate of all taxpayers. What’s good for the town will be good for us. What’s good for us may not be good for the entire town. Please understand the funds are limited, not limitless and we have to do our due diligence as Councilors at budget time because this will have a cascading effect down the road.”
Councilor Bitzas proposed to open the meeting to allow Agawam Mayor William Sapelli and members of the School Committee to speak regarding the school budget. The motion was not seconded and was considered out of order.
City Council President Christopher C. Johnson moved to cut $100,000 from the stormwater management line item. It was initially proposed to increase $225,000 from the fiscal year 2019 budget. By cutting $100,000 from the stormwater line item, the total increase was 25 percent for fiscal year 2020.
Councilor Johnson said, “Over the last year, I’ve heard probably the largest outcry I have ever heard from taxpayers, especially the elderly relative to the increases in their taxes. I’m going to try to identify some spots that we can cut back. Right now, this budget is predicated upon a 2.5 percent increase in the taxes, which is the maximum allowed, which represents about 1.5 million dollars. Two weeks ago, the Council passed a local option meals tax which will hopefully provide at least about $200,000-$250,000 in the coming fiscal year.”
Councilor Johnson continued, “I admire the job that Mayor Sapelli and the School Committee and all of the department heads have done. But the reality is that I’m trying to be receptive to the people who have talked to me over the course of the last year and said while they support all that goes on in Agawam, we can’t be passing along 2, 3, $400 increases to single family tax payers. For those who are on a fixed income, it’s awful difficult.”
The City Council voted unanimously to cut $100,000 from the stormwater management line item.
Councilor Rosemary Sandlin moved to cut $250,000 from the Agawam Public Schools portion of the budget. Councilor Cecilia Calabrese seconded the motion.
“What we’re looking at is one quarter of one cent as a cut in this budget. I think that we need to be responsible to the taxpayers in the town of Agawam. I know the value of education. I served on the School Committee and I served on the Education Committee. But I think that this needs to be done. We need to be responsible to the senior citizens and the taxpayers who are looking for relief. There are a lot of things coming down the pike for the next fiscal year [like] wastewater fees and so I think at this point, we need to make this motion,” Sandlin said.
Councilor Robert Magovern shared, “I’m a firm believer in education. However, I support this cut. I don’t want to see any of it come out of the teachers’ salaries or special [education.] I think there’s room in the administrative area that it can be cut. I don’t want to see education harmed in this town. But back to what was said earlier about the senior citizens and the tax rate. Every year when the tax rate goes up, they point to the City Council and say, ‘why didn’t you do something to try to keep our taxes down?’ Well we’re trying as difficult a job as we can to keep the taxes down, but I don’t want to see it impact any of the schoolteachers in this town. We’ve got a great school system; I want to keep it there. If I felt any way, shape, form or manner that this would injure the teachers, I wouldn’t be supporting this proposal.”
Councilor Bitzas spoke against the proposed cut. “If you support education, you make a statement, you support it. You don’t support education if you cut. Now $250,000 is absolutely nothing for the town budget. As Councilor Sandlin said, it’s a fraction of a penny. So it’s not going to hurt the taxpayers. It’s going to hurt the school system. The idea here is to show the support [for] teachers and everybody. $250,000 is just a political maneuver for election time. That’s all I can see. Maybe some of the Councilors don’t like what I said, but this is a free country and my heart speaks from here. I’m not telling you how to vote. You can vote to cut $250,000. You can make a statement and vote $100,000 if it makes you feel better. But do not fool the people. $250,000 out of $96 million dollars is absolutely nothing. As Councilor Sandlin said, it’s only a fraction of a penny. They’re not going to hurt the taxpayers, they’re going to hurt the people here,” Bitzas said.
Bitzas continued, “I’m not going to tell you how to vote, I’m probably the only vote here, but my heart votes for it and I’m not going to lie to taxpayers because I’m a taxpayer. My daughter is a taxpayer. My son is a taxpayer. I have a lot of senior friends and I don’t think they mind to give one tenth of a penny to help education.”
The City Council voted 8-1 to approve to cut $250,000 from the Agawam Public Schools budget. The fiscal year 2020 annual operating budget was approved unanimously.
To view the meeting, visit https://vimeo.com/343059050.