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MARS Board Meeting Minutes
January 11, 2005
MARS minutes for January 11, 2005: A report on the information given out and
on the conversational directions at this meeting
Present: Bruce Kaiser, Gene Carlo, Marcia Lukon, Mindy Kempner, Maureen
Marshall, Clifford fountain, Lynn Ryan, Stephen Hemmen, Richard Scortino, Steve
Nembirkow, Dee Dee Niswonger
HOUSE ONE
It is expected that House One, due out shortly, will increase chapter 70 by
3.1%, enough to keep all at foundation, and perhaps to include very small
increases to a few. Level fund 06 budget for safety. Regions are, and have been,
experiencing so much growth in Health Insurance and Medicaid costs that all new
money will probably be absorbed by those items. The state is experiencing the
same pattern, and it is reported that the two primary issues for both House and
Senate will be the spiraling costs of Health Insurance and Medicaid. These two
are greater state budget burdens than public education, which comes in third.
Because of the similarity of fiscal demands regions can inform our legislators
about the regional dilemma over uncontrolled increases in these areas with an
expectation of understanding. Rather than doing the unpopular thing of
legislating ways to reduce these commitments the state wants individual school
districts to take on the task of reducing commitments such as retiree health
insurance and other “budget busters”. It seems unlikely that this will happen.
NEW MONEY IN LOCAL AID
At the end of the last budget season the Governor added 75 million new money to
local aid. He will honor that statement and is adding 25 million more. Do not
expect 75 plus 100! Expect 75 plus 25 to make 100 more. However, the Mass
Municipal Association (MMA) is working hard to get another 100 million
distributed in lottery aid, which is unrestricted and can go to support
municipal costs other than education.
Since accountability is the idea of the moment, all new money comes with strings
attached.
FEDERAL CUTS
There have been federal cuts in both Medicaid and SPED monies so expect
reductions in your aid.
TARGET SHARE
Target share remains an important idea. It does not work out well for regions—of
the 84 existent districts, only 8 benefit under this plan. It seems that in
exchange for a formula we can all understand, we get reductions in dollars.
Furthermore, minimum contributions will increase substantially. Our aid will be
the difference between foundation budget and minimum contribution. Enrollment
may play a part. Overall enrollment is going slightly down, although some
communities are individually experiencing growth.
House One will come out soon and be followed in five days by the minimum
contribution figures for all municipalities. Many think the Governor’s budget is
dead on arrival and will not represent the final figures. The relationship
between the Governor and the legislature is poor. Therefore it is stressed that
using FY05 numbers is the best way to go to avoid the confusion of immediately
past years when House One numbers were used, were inaccurate, and caused chaos
for some districts.
TRANSPORTATION
Last summer the Senate voted to fully fund regional transportation. We will use
that vote to fight for full funding this year. All of us need to participate, as
usual, in this battle. Please get school committees and parents and
administration and teachers informed and ready to deluge the House and Senate at
the appropriate times. Our multitudinous voices really do work. Because the
actual dollar amount is relatively small, and goes a long way, it is easy for
the legislature to give it to us and feel that they are doing a lot. Regional
schools are part of almost all the communities in the state and so almost every
legislator can bring something home to his/her communities by voting yes on
regional transportation. But it is up to us individually to make sure they don’t
overlook us and the way to do that is through every means of communication from
legislative breakfasts, lunches and/or dinners, to evening events, to letters,
phone calls, newspaper articles and reminders when you run into somebody on the
street.
A shocking fact, which the DoE had not calculated, is that in comparison to the
cost of regular transportation (not regional) SPED transportation is now more
expensive. That is, state wide it costs more to transport all SPED students than
it does to transport all non-regional students. MASS is trying to get SPED
transportation into the circuit breaker.
Regions have been hit hard. There is not really any recovery. We must rely on
increases to regional transportation aid to bring in much needed increases. Many
districts are going out to bid now and are warned to be careful to use
protective language on fuel costs.
CIRCUIT BREAKER
The circuit breaker works best in districts which have good communication with
their communities, where fin coms and others are in agreement with the district
about how to use the money which comes in, how to break it down, and so forth.
Like all other areas of cooperation between school and towns, good communication
really makes this succeed.
AUDITS
Much frustration was expressed about the audits now being experienced by most
school districts. The public side is not used to the level of accountability now
being demanded. We have no write-offs. Our “write-off” is a kid doing less well.
Kids often don’t find the accountability issues annoying—they accept them.
Perhaps it is part of our job to ensure they know how to best deal with these
evaluations, as part of a new culture, to be as good at them as possible.
There is resentment of the fact that these audits don’t lead to improvements in
curriculum or benefits for children, but rather take inordinate amounts of time
for all school personnel. There are seven or eight possible audits; one alone
has 15 standards and over 100 “indicators”, and none of these were in place
during the time period for which they are being used for evaluation; often a
district has two or three going on at once; no one is in charge of the big
picture on them; there is no system to use the findings.
One district has built a model for dealing with informing the staff about each
standard. A focus group is formed for each standard (no teacher is used twice,
and there is a careful mix of math and English backgrounds in each group). Each
group’s work is printed out and sent in a packet to all staff so that all have
the same material when answering questions.
Joe Rappa reports directly to the Governor’s office: to Peyser and Romney. There
is over $6 million in the budget, in several places, to cover the audit costs.
We need a whole new structure in the schools. The one principal over x number of
teachers doesn’t lead to the close oversight and growth now expected. These
audits need to take us where we are, not three years back, and they need to be
pro-active about the future.
It was mentioned again that the improvement requirements of AYP are
statistically impossible after 2014.
Shortly following this discussion it was brought out that there are 51
superintendency openings now in MA and it was wondered how many there would be
next year when the retirement program is more attractive.
MASS POSITION PAPER AND STRATEGY
MASS has worked hard to put together material in preparation for the new formula
discussions which are expected to take place this winter. While we are now in a
transition period, and we should expect the 06 budget to reflect that, a new
formula is expected for the future. Once Hancock is settled and all the
information the legislature needs is available, MASS wants to part of the
discussions. MARS’ role in this is to fight steadily for regional
transportation, to keep you informed, and to support MASS as much a possible
throughout the process. We are fortunate that two of the most active MASS
participants are highly informed regional school people and we thank Dave Tobin
and Gene Carlo heartily for their efforts and achievements, for including MARS
consistently in their deliberations, and for their deep understanding of
regional issues which they dependably bring “to the table”.
A series of events is planned for superintendents by MASS which will help to
inform you in depth about the MASS work being done. Starting in early Feb.
meetings will be held with each Round Table President to study the MASS position
paper, now almost completed. Each Round Table will be asked to bring in local
legislators to inform them about the position. This step is essential. If the
legislators learn about your needs from you, and learn your solutions first,
their expectations of ensuing solutions will be effected by their understanding
of your needs and your solutions. While this is going on other organizations,
such as MASC, will work with MASS on the position paper and be invited to
support it.
STATE BUDGET/FOUNDATION BUDGET
There is concern about the contents of the state budget which, over a dozen
years, has increased from a budget of billions in the teens, to a 23 billion
budget. On close study, it is full of questionable expenditures. A real trimming
of the spending in Boston would not need to cut, or reduce education support.
There is also concern for the inadequacy of the foundation budget. All the
figures are available to give accurate breakdowns for categories in the budgets,
but they are woefully understated; for instance, benefit packages and SPED
percentages are ridiculous, along with many more.
In the commonwealth there are 375 school districts. From FY02 through FY05 64%
or 242 of 375 have experienced reductions in state aid. 40% or 151 of those
districts lost 20% (many regions are in this 20% category). 91 lost between 1 –
19%. 133 or 36% received foundation aid increases totaling 8% over three years,
averaging 2.34% a year.* *These statistics were reported at the meeting and some
can also be found in the current MASS Position paper, page 1. It is unclear if
the 20% cut may affect a larger number of districts than reported.
SBAB
The new one check payment plan for SBAB will require towns to be prepared for
dealing with one enormous check. With planning that check can be used for great
benefit for each town involved. There needs to be a training program available
for towns.
MARS DATA COLLECTION
MARS is talking about developing a database which we can update regularly. At
this time finding current 04 numbers is causing a problem. Our first area of
study will be wealth. Determining community wealth is one of the most important
determinates for aid, and one of the most difficult statistics to present
accurately. The municipal revenue growth factor may be the one dependable
measure available, although confusion can develop with urban areas this way. A
small group will be meeting this spring to begin the work, asking, among other
questions, what is the most helpful data, where is it, should we use schedule 19
data which is 11/2 years old and how can what is gathered best be used.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be Feb. 8, a day on which the Worcester County Round Table
for MASS also meets. We will end our meeting by 11:30 to allow attendees to get
to that meeting on time.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Dee Dee Niswonger
For More Information Contact:
Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools
P.O. Box 334, Williamsburg, MA 01096-0334
Tel: 413-268-3607
E-mail:
niswonger@comcast.net
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Massachusetts Association of
Regional Schools