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Date: 6/15/2023
LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow School Committee approved the increase in athletic user fees proposed by Assistant Superintendent for Finance Thomas Mazza.
Several factors led Mazza to recommend the increase, including the rising cost of transportation. Due to a recent change to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s tournament system, student athletes now travel across the state to compete, rather than competing within a local region before moving on to state level competition. Mazza also cited salaries, site supervision, low gate receipts and stagnant revenue, in which fees have not been increased in more than 10 years.
Mazza said the Finance Subcommittee reviewed three options for changing the fee schedule. The first would raise fees for all sports, except football and ice hockey, by $40. This would generate $50,440 in fiscal year 2024. Using option two, fees would increase between $0 and $90, depending on the individual sport’s difference between revenue and expenses. This would increase revenue by $47,240 in FY24. The third option had a three-year rollout, in which option two would be implemented in the first year followed by a $10 flat fee increase in FY25 and a $15 flat increase in FY26. Mazza said the Finance Subcommittee ruled out option three. He recommended the School Committee adopt option two.
School Committee member Jamie Hensch said that option two is “reasonable, fair and fairly equitable among sports.” With this fee schedule, she said 76% of families will see increases of $25 or less, while 24% will experience fee increases larger than $40 per sport.
Football and ice hockey would remain separate from the fee schedule as they are more expensive to play. School Committee member Kevin Shea said ice hockey will increase by $250, totaling $850 per student. “Hockey is very expensive,” he said.
School Committee Chair Nicole Choiniere asked how Longmeadow Public Schools’ athletic fees compared to surrounding districts. “
I’d say we have the highest fees in the area. There are some districts that don’t charge fees at all,” Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea told her.
“What we’re collecting from these families is nowhere near covering the cost,” Hensch said. Choiniere noted the department was “in the red” by more than $190,000 last year, and this increase would not fill that gap.
School Committee member Gianna Allentuck asked about the availability of financial aid for families that cannot afford the fees. Mazza assured her that there is a subsidy and a payment option. For parents with multiple children, there is a cap limiting to five the number of sports the school department charges fees to play per year.
Center School
Center School leadership presented a video to the School Committee displaying how the elementary level literacy curriculum connects to the Vision of the Graduate, a series of six skills that students are taught throughout their academic career in Longmeadow. Assistant Principal Skylar Schmittlein said that while the Vision of the Graduate skills, also known as competencies, appear to be “high school level” work, it also translates to the elementary level through developmentally appropriate tools processes and routines.
Literacy coach Vanessa Vigna said that literacy can be individualized to students through one-on-one and small group instruction. In an interactive activity with the School Committee members, they were given cards displaying the six Vision of the Graduate competencies — accountability, independence, problem solving, communication, collaboration and critical thinking — and identified the competencies students exhibited in a video.
Allentuck praised the work done by Center School educators and the way standards-based report cards share information with parents. Choiniere said the students were learning “all of the things that are necessary for them to be growing up to be academically and socially successful.” O’Shea said the students in the video were experiencing both high engagement and high challenge, desirable traits when teaching lessons.
Departures
Choiniere recognized outgoing committee members Allentuck and Kevin Shea with plaques honoring their years of service on the School Committee. She said Allentuck has been “a dedicated advocate and supporter for the special needs of Longmeadow.” Of Shea she said he always listened to every angle of an issue. She praised his “strong and steady leadership” as chair during the coronavirus pandemic. Allentuck said not running for another term of the committee was “the right decision for my family,” but added “my heart will still be with Longmeadow.” Shea said that coaching softball and joining the School Committee were both “transformative” in his life. He said part of the reason he ran for the School Committee was to show his children that “sometimes you’ve got to step up.” He praised the committee for being respectful, even while disagreeing. Both Allentuck and Shea have been on the committee since 2019
The retirement of Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Learning Susan Bertrand was also announced, though it is not effective until October. O’Shea said Bertrand had been a tireless diversity, equity and inclusion advocate and has led the charge on the district improvement plan.