Concerned members of the community joined in a rally last Wednesday calling for more funding for Somerville Schools.

Hundreds of educators, caregivers, students, and community members gathered outside of East Somerville Community School on Wednesday before a hearing on the school budget to call on Mayor Katjana Ballantyne to increase her funding proposal for Somerville Public Schools.

Afterwards, dozens of educators, caregivers, and community members offered public comments and spoke passionately about the need to go beyond level funding to meet the needs of Somerville students and educators and defend against federal funding cuts.

The Somerville Educators Union and community allies are calling on city leadership to pass a budget that increases previous spending by 10%, which will enable Somerville to lower class sizes, create an authentic inclusion model for all students, strengthen support for multilingual learners, pay all Somerville educators a minimum of $50,000 a year, and retain the city’s most experienced teachers.

The Somerville Educators Union is also in the midst of negotiating new contracts with the School Committee. Since contract negotiations began in December, the union has made proposals that address student learning and educator working conditions, seek to disrupt societal inequities that are baked into our public schools, push for a sustainable future in our city, and pay educators fair and comparable salaries. Contracts for the 750-plus educators are set to expire in August 2025.

The SEU issued the following statements:

SEU President Dayshawn Simmons: “Fully funded schools mean smaller class sizes, more attention to individual student needs, equitable access to performing arts, fine arts, and innovative technology, and co-curricular programs that inspire passion and creativity. It means schools are safe, inclusive spaces where every student – regardless of address, race or income – has an equal opportunity to succeed. Fully funded schools mean we have a true inclusion model that supports all of our students. Our schools are not just buildings; they are the very foundation of our communities, and the future of our society depends on the investments we make in them today. Some in our federal government want to disinvest in our schools. But Somerville defends and invests in public education. A level-services budget fails to acknowledge that our students are currently not receiving all that they need and deserve to reach their full potential. Somerville must do better for all of its students.”

A Winter Hill Community Innovation School educator & SEU Membership Secretary, Megan Brady shared: “Our schools need a 10% increase in the school budget, which amounts to about $5 million more than Mayor Ballantyne has previously proposed. In 2024, Somerville took in $5.9 million in revenue in excess of its budget. In 2023, we took in an excess $14.4 million. In 2022, we took in an excess $22 million! Since 2019, the Free Cash in this City has nearly doubled to about $33 million! Somerville has the money to pay their employees living wages AND support all of its students with exemplary class sizes and staffing. This is an investment we know our city can afford, and an investment that means we live out our values, instead of just talking about them.”

Jenna DiNovis, an educator at East Somerville Community School, shared: “As the sole math interventionist at East Somerville Community School, home to 731 students, it is logistically impossible for me to serve students in all nine grade levels at once. I have to make difficult decisions about which grade levels and students I can and can not support. Every quarter, there are an average of 15 to 20 students per grade level at East who would benefit from small group math support. I am only able to provide support to, in the best-case scenario, one-third of them. In the worst case, I’m only able to provide support to less than one-quarter of the students who need me. This breaks my heart, and our students deserve better.”

John F. Kennedy School PTA President, Becky Lopes-Filho: “Somerville is putting our necks out, on a federal level, to stand up for our shared values. But here, at home, we’re pretending that our district is doing fine, that we’re leading the way on equity, on excellence, and on serving our most vulnerable. The reality is, we are limping along, struggling to meet the growing needs of our most vulnerable populations. Our school leaders, School Committee, parents and caregivers, and educators have been and are in alignment year after year in the collaborative budget process saying we need more. More staff, more counselors, more specialists, more paras, more supports. More, not the same. 5% level funding provides us with more of the same. This budget and this educators’ contract represent an inflection point. It’s time for more, not less, more, not the same, more, not level service. It’s time for visionary leadership. We are watching and we are tired of waiting for something better.”

Cesar Urrunaga, educator at East Somerville Community School and parent in the district stated: “I have students that go without services on a regular basis because we have to share a teacher with other grades, because they have to do testing, or they are sick and no subs are provided. Of course, because there aren’t enough special educators, it is up to the classroom teacher to put on yet another hat during the day driving teacher burnout. If the city means it when it says that it appreciates their teachers and students, then a 10% budget should be a no brainer. If we want to have an inclusion model, then we need to fund the inclusion model.”

— Somerville Educators Union