Massachusetts Association of
Regional Schools
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MARS Board Meeting MinutesMarch 14, 2007Present:Alan Genovese, Michael Fitzpatrick, Stephen Hemman, Mike Zapantis, Sue M. Gee, Cheryl Duval, Bruce Kaiser, Chris Lynch, Judith L Klimkiewicz, Gene Carlo, Michael Buoniconti, Maureen Marshall, Donna Harlan, Dee Dee Niswonger The meeting was called to order and all introduced themselves. Item III on the agenda was resolved by MARS President Maureen Marshall and Board Member Gene Carlo volunteering to put out the agenda, and Board Member Stephen Hemman offering to take the minutes. Joan Runkle will send out materials as needed. Item IV. On Health Insurance will move forward with a group Chaired by Stephen Hemman looking into more effective ways to provide health insurance for regional districts, and to provide information to regional districts about insurance choices available. State law currently haunts us with the irrevocable aspect of insurance that protects all retirees. The only way around this is to add a new chapter to the law that grandfathers protection to all current retirees, and only affects newly entering people. Michael Buoniconti and Gene Carlo both expressed interest in being part of this sub committee. Item V. Michael Buoniconti presented material about what is being called the R.E.D. Circuit Breaker designed to help the Rural, Economically challenged, Declining enrollment communities. He thanked Ken Rocke, retired superintendent from Blue Hills Voc. for his work on the statistical material, and Chris Lynch for her data and help there also. The statistical work Ken has put together is exactly what we have needed for the last ten years and is very high quality. As Superintendent of Mohawk, Michael used Mohawk for his examples of why the R.E.D. circuit breaker is needed, first remarking that the criteria used were not chosen for geographical purposes but that the results showed districts primarily from western Mass to be the most affected. The criteria used measure density of students per district square mile (100 FTE per square mile), wealth of communities , by using the per cent of target share (over 50%) and enrollment decline over past five years (6.5%). These criteria brought up 18 districts, 10 of which are towns, and 8 are regions. The total cost of assistance to them is 9.15 million. The proposal compares FY02 aid to FY07 aid. It then multiplies the 07 per pupil amount by the IDP of 1.244% and a cap of $1000.00 is applied so that no result can exceed a $1000.00 per pupil increase. The amount of the FY07 per pupil aid is then multiplied by the actual FY08 enrollment to calculate the aid for FY08. The district increases range from 9.9 thousand for the town of Holland to 1.5 million for Central Berkshire. The increase it a one time change that would be a new base for future aid. Mohawk has lost 22% of it’s enrollment over the past 5 years. Although Chapter 70 will bring in more per pupil, the dollar value goes down while the actual costs go up, with almost 1 million a year difference. With the 2004 cuts the district has reached a crisis where towns are considering going bankrupt. Mohawk is looking at cutting everything in the system that is not MCAS related. The result of decisions like that is to lose more students to Choice and plummet Mohawk into a death spiral. This pattern started with declining enrollment but not geography. The knee jerk reaction to consolidate does not work here because of geography and the bonded costs of new school buildings. Gene Carlo pointed out that the state analyzed job bidding. The analysis resulted in the wage adjustment factor. A similar analysis for education would produce five separate areas in the state requiring five individual foundation budgets to account for the differences area to area. We used to have a Foundation Budget Commission, and Leslie Kirwan sat on it, and the commission dealt with problems like the need for restructuring the Foundation Budget. We need such a commission again. But recently there has not been the appetite to make the kinds of changes that are needed. The R.E.D. Circuit Breaker sets a new proposal that such a commission should study. A discussion continued about the political fall out of using criteria for a revenue source, like pot hole money, that would limit it’s availability to most while assuring it’s availability to some. Those excluded will be mad! VI. Chris Lynch reviewed transportation issues. The survey developed by the committee assisting the DoE to develop a transportation survey will be available to be filled out soon, through MASSONE:surveys. The legislature directed DoE to look for efficiencies and economies in transportation delivery. When the data is all collected from the surveys the department hopes efficiencies and economies are clear and can be used to indicate to the legislature that 100% regional transportation reimbursement is justified. The DoE urges all districts to fill out the survey and MARS seconds that. All Mass school districts and collaboratives are be asked to do this. The audit part of the legislation is about to start. School districts will be notified. These audits are not punitive. Talk continued about EQA and whether it is still active. Any district that has been audited and not further informed, or any district that expects an audit and has not heard more should write to the Commissioner to find out what is happening. VII. The DoE put together a budget they believe is in the best interest of education with a bottom line of $352 million, including $199M for Chapter 70. House One came out with almost $200 million in Chapter 70 with about 1/3 of the districts receiving $50 per pupil. There is tremendous angst on the Hill that there is not enough money, the needed dollars for greater spending don’t exist. They are not looking at ways to redistribute the 28 billion in state spending; they are not studying their priorities to fund them and tighten their belts in other spending areas. There is little pressure on the Hill to realign the spending patterns. The political process makes the Speaker the most influential person on the Hill for fiscal reasons because nothing goes to the Senate unless it comes first out of the House. Dave Tobin, Tom Scott, and Shelley Berman were meeting at the same time as the MARS meeting with the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. MASS continues to point out that the Foundation Budget is inadequate. They point out that in House One every criteria in the F.B. is met, and all are in reality inadequate. If the 4.66% inflation factor were added in the 200 m would increase by 54 M. MASS has statistics that indicate that Massachusetts’s towns are paying more for education than towns in almost every other state in the country. And it doesn’t look like there will be much change in that even with the loss of overrides in communities that are growing in enrollment and that typically support education. Many are saying it is time for the state to do a larger share. For a copy of the census reports used in the statistical analysis please go to: http://www.massbudget.org/Public_School_Funding_in_MA.pdf MARS does not have an electronic copy of this paper. What was passed out includes an update for FY07. The statistics such as those showing that Mass towns are more heavily burdened with educational costs than those in most states underpin MASS’ determination to work for a more adequate Foundation Budget, and for more state support of education. Even though there is not a lot of new money, dollars can still be rearranged, if there is energy to do it. With all this work toward more Chapter 70, please note that minimum contribution amounts are likely to be stable. Minutes respectfully submitted by Dee Dee Niswonger For More Information Contact: |
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