Fiscal Year 2020 budget increases for school systems

Date: 2/6/2019

EAST LONGMEADOW – The Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) budget took up a large portion of the East Longmeadow School Committee’s Feb. 4 meeting, as the group discussed Governor Baker’s proposed budget and what this meant for the East Longmeadow Public School District.

“Our Chapter 70 aid for FY 2020 is in the Governor’s budget, increasing to $2,082,021, which is an increase of about $828,000 from this current year,” Superintendent Gordon Smith shared with the School Committee. “It’s only the first step in the process but it’s good to see.”

The Chapter 70 program is a state aid program for public elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts. According to massbudget.org, lawmakers developed the “foundation budget” as a way to calculate a funding level for each K-12 district to assure that spending never falls below the amount needed to provide an adequate education to students.

Smith noted that Governor Baker, in his current budget, has not only outlined a number of initiatives supporting education but is also looking to help move to put in place some of the recommendations that people have been asking for surrounding the foundation budget. The foundation budget, Smith explained, was created in 1993 and parts of it are “well outdated in terms of how they’re configuring percentages in terms of municipalities, mostly around special education.”

School Committee member William Fonseca added his insight to Governor Baker’s budget and more specifically the foundation budget, stating, “He’s taking a stab at trying to implement it because there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on the legislature, both Senate and the House. The Senate did pass something last year that was going to start funding it–the house just stalled it...There’s a lot of pressure on the legislature this year to do something around those recommendations.

“It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not nearly enough for what the Foundation Budget Review Commission's recommendations are,” he said.

Closing the budget discussion, Smith expressed that last week he had the opportunity to meet with a representative for Governor Baker. During this meeting, the representative asked Smith what his thoughts were on the budget, to which Smith shared he wouldlike to see that the state continue to fund the Circuit Breaker Grant at the 75 percent rate it was originally written at. Smith shared that lately, the percentage has been hovering around at 73 or 74 percent. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website explains that the Circuit Breaker Program was started in FY04 to provide additional state funding to districts for high-cost special education students.

The website explains, “The threshold for eligibility is tied to four times the state average foundation budget per pupil as calculated under the chapter 70 program, with the state paying 75 percent of the costs above that threshold. In FY08, the state average foundation budget per pupil was $8852, so if a special education student cost a district $50,000, the district's eligible reimbursement for that student would be ($50,000 - (4*$8852))*.75 = $10,944.”

Smith divulged, “If they could consistently keep it there [at 75 percent] that’s something that not only is an account that we depend on, I’m sure that many districts across Massachusetts are depending on that to, as you know that special education can be somewhat volatile in terms of added district tuitions.”

“Constitutionally, it’s supposed to be funded at 75 percent. When the Governor and the House and the Senate start to bring out their budgets and it’s not and they finally settle on something, that’s when you’ll see supplemental budgets pass throughout the course of the year trying to up the percentage getting it close to as 75 percent as they can,” Fonseca added.

To watch the Feb. 4 School Committee meeting, go to ELCAT’s Youtube page or this direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWxH2xu3uQA&t=0s&index=2&list=PLp26WjLCI0G0-SnFmBO8gZgBtlZNXBYhC