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MARS Board Meeting Minutes
February 8, 2005
MARS minutes Feb 8 2005 (These minutes are in draft form.)
Present: Bruce Kaiser, Carol Jacobs, Mindy Kempner, Cliff Fountain, Barry Motta,
Steve Nembirkow, Dave Tobin, Stephen Hemmen, Marcia Lukon, Lynn Ryan, Gene
Carlo, Michael Fitzpatrick, Jim Culkeen, Dee Dee Niswonger
House One is out and was extensively analyzed for the meeting by Gene Carlo and
Dave Tobin, whose work on this is invaluable. Their analysis brings out several
important points.
•
Hold harmless has been segregated in the aid calculations in a
way never seen before. It still remains but it is identified. It is clear that
the hold harmless aid is only there to bring aid packages up to 05 levels. There
is concern that the 263 million involved could be re-directed if Hancock’s
decision required more money put into some area.
•
There are new definitions for the aid. What we would expect to
call Base Aid is now called Foundation aid. The importance of this is that Base
Aid included 150 million in regional incentive aid which was distributed to
regions. By using Foundation Aid, that is completely lost as are other
historical components (EEOG, etc.). Furthermore, Base Aid was cut for most
districts by 20% in 04. There is no attempt with Foundation Aid to make up that
cut.
•
The Municipal Revenue Growth Factor (MRGF) is uncapped, which
means that the communities must support their schools at the actual level of
increased growth. This reduces the amount the state needs to put in. There is a
statewide average increase in Local Municipal Contributions of about 5.18 %.
Each Required Contribution is last year’s required sum plus the local MRGF. To
raise the necessary tax dollars and stay within Prop. 21/2, local communities’
overall valuations are increasing.
•
The state has identified over 1 billion in local reserves and
wants the municipalities to spend that. Municipalities have been prudent in
building up stabilization accounts and other accounts. The only way these
accounts can be shielded from the state is to encumber money for specific
purposes. When this is done, the town cannot spend that money except through
town meeting or other authorization vote, and the overall value of the town is
less.
House One includes the numbers for local contributions. It is expected that
these numbers will remain “good” because of the chaos resulting from changing
them. However, it is also expected that other aspects of the education budget
will change. Therefore, budgets should not be built on these aid figures unless
you want to estimate 5% BELOW level funding.
The one place regions may be able to get more money is from regional
transportation please see next e-mail for specific request on that. With your
help we may be able to do something. Without it, we do not have the data
necessary to fight.
Among several handouts at the meeting was a sheet detailing the means by which
local contributions have been calculated. Please remember that all of you
receiving these Minutes and the announcement of the Agenda are welcome at the
MARS Executive Board meetings. There is a tremendous amount of information
delivered, and some of it is best transmitted person to person. However, for
those who may have a community with an extreme increase in their local
contribution, if you call the MARS office, a copy of the handout can be faxed to
you, and we can talk you through it. Gene and Dave are the obvious people to do
this, but they are inundated with calls, so perhaps they could be a second call
if this office can’t help you.
Mass Insight’s presentation to the Governor, House and Senate leaders, and
several others was met with great interest, the Governor even postponing a
conflicting meeting after the presentation started, to enable him to continue
with it. You can read Mass Insight’s document called The Unfinished Agenda by
going to
www.massinsight.com
and following the education articles. This material will definitely be part of
the upcoming conversation about our new direction. MASS is studying that
document now as it continues to develop it’s position paper.
Every district can see it’s fiscal details by going to the DoE website. You can
do this with a link out of the MARS website or directly. On the school finance
page go to regions, then use both your district LEA and the LEA of the member
town for which you wish information. The analysis goes back to 02 for every
community.
One last issue of concern is that House One cuts the non-resident transportation
line item (7035-0007) just newly added (in 05) to the budget, from 100% to 50%.
The language says 50%, although the numbers are still 100%. The language
supercedes the numbers.
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