As we read the Monday, April 24 Recorder, my husband noted that, “Some communities are adding courses while others are cutting them.” He was noting that Turners Falls and Athol high schools will be “adding new fields of study for students with professional aspirations.”

Also this weekend, from Chicopee, we are seeing ads on television seeking to hire more teachers, aides, coaches and all kinds of staff for the city’s school system.

At the same time, we are learning that Greenfield schools will be cutting subjects, including full-time early education, middle school Spanish and sports, Strings for Kids, high school electives of history and business, and more, following the mayor’s proposed cut of $1.5 million to the School Department’s requested budget.

Might Greenfield’s loss be Chicopee’s gain? Surely it has occurred to Chicopee that Greenfield’s unsupported teachers are fertile ground for its own searches.

While the mayor’s hands may be tied with regard to the seemingly large increases in the budgets of the police, fire and DPW, her responsibility to the School Department and the families in the city should compel her to find the money she needs somewhere in the city’s coffers. She could, it appears, allocate over $382,000 from free cash and another $100,000 from the contract stabilization account.

And why, for example, does Greenfield need $6 million in its rainy day fund when $5 million would likely serve just as well as a measure of our fiscal stability when we next need to borrow for a capital project?

The quality of a community’s schools is an important consideration for young families looking to move into an area. Great schools attract young doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, all of whom Greenfield really needs. Conversely, a neglected, struggling school system not supported by the community’s government is a signal that children are not helped to thrive here, so living elsewhere is a more attractive option.

In this way, Greenfield, the city, loses out to its neighboring communities, financially and developmentally, just as it does when its children opt out of Greenfield for schools in other towns.

I believe that the majority of Greenfield’s city councilors understand the urgency of this situation and are trying desperately to find the needed funds. Ultimately, however, only the mayor can decide how and where to allocate money and she has, so far, turned a deaf ear to these concerns, claiming that she has no alternatives.

If she would only listen to her constituents for a change, the mayor would have to admit that options do exist and, for the sake of the city, she must open herself to them.

We, the residents of Greenfield owe it to our children and to our entire community to call the mayor’s office and demand that she go back to the budget table and find the funding the schools need to help our children thrive.

Louise Amyot lives in Greenfield. 

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