A letter to the Newburyport News

I have been on Amesbury’s School Committee since 2020, and each year state funding has decreased while our costs – like costs for families and businesses everywhere – have increased. In 2001, Chapter 70 funds, the most significant source of state support for education, was 53% of our total district budget and in 2025 it had shrunk to 24%. At the same time, costs for health insurance, electricity, transportation, special education services, for example, have all seen increases that we cannot control or predict. Year after year we have had to choose the lesser of evils while trying to provide our students and teachers with the resources they need to learn, teach, and grow. The anguish we have all felt at budget hearings has been deep and justified. 

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The trend is unsustainable, and in June 2024 I started – and have been chairing – the Long-range Planning Committee to steer us away from year-to-year problem-solving and toward longer term solutions. Our charge - to find more efficient ways to provide high quality schooling in a period of scarce resources. As part of that work, a Task Force was formed, and we invited the community to join us in this work. Amesbury is fortunate to have a group of dedicated, smart, and energetic people commit their time and effort to this challenge.

 

Together we have been exploring more efficient use of our buildings and potential collaborations with other districts – including regionalization, more effective ways to bring larger donations into the district, and how best to advocate for changing state funding for education. 

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None of these solutions will solve our funding problem on their own – multiple solutions are needed. And none of them will fix our problems now – they will each take time to implement properly. This is why I urge Amesbury voters to support the override. The override will buy us the time we need to put long-range systems in place that will keep our schools strong. It will enable us to attract a new superintendent with the experience, temperament, and vision we need to build a brighter, stronger future for our students. And we will be better able to work with Amesbury teachers on their next contract.

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I know what an override means to our pocketbooks – mine included – so I don’t make this choice lightly. But the challenges our schools are facing are also felt by Amesbury’s police, fire, library, and Council on Aging. Doing nothing will only cost us more money in the long run, and cause real harm to our students, teachers and community in the short term. 

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Please consider voting for the override, and thank you for caring about Amesbury’s future.

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- Abigail Jurist Levy