(Greenfield, MA) From the Greenfield Education Association:
On Thursday, May 25, the Greenfield Education Association and their supporters gathered outside city hall to protest Mayor Roxann Wedegartner’s withdrawal of financial orders worth $365,000, which she had promised the Greenfield Public Schools.
The mayor’s cuts are the latest in an ongoing fight over school funding. In March, Mayor Roxann Wedegartner announced plans to cut the Greenfield Public Schools’ proposed budget by over $1.5 million.
After weeks of budget deliberations by the Ways & Means Committee—led by Councilor Virginia “Ginny” DeSorgher—on Thursday, May 18, the Greenfield City Council voted to restore $1.18 million to the school budget. Together with $365,000 that the mayor committed last month to the schools, this would have meant full funding of the proposed GPS budget.
Then, on Monday, May 22, the mayor sent a memo to the City Council withdrawing the $365,000 she had promised the schools, saying the funds are “no longer needed by the school department.”
In response to the mayor’s statement, Greenfield Education Association President Ann Valentine asked: “How can our school system not need the money when they have been chronically underfunded for over a decade? Has the mayor not read the hundreds of emails from our teachers, parents, and allies in the community demonstrating the clear need for more funding?”
Judy Bennett, eighth-grade science said: “My colleagues and I are exhausted from trying to prove to this mayor how badly our schools need funding. It’s disheartening to see the mayor’s lack of commitment to our children and how strongly she’s fighting to defund our schools. But I am proud that so many teachers, parents, and community members had the stamina to show up today.
We need a mayor who is committed to listening to the community and to creating a budget that reflects the will of our people. It’s clear who has the best interest of Greenfield in their hearts and who does not.”