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Date: 3/10/2021
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – Superintendent Albert Ganem told the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) on March 4 that elementary schools would likely be unable to continue hybrid learning as of April 5. The change, a directive from Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey Riley, has left the school and district administration scrambling.
Riley conducted a joint press conference with Gov. Charlie Baker on Feb. 23 to announce that schools would be expected to move to a fully in-person model of education, although a remote option would still be available through the end of the school year. Ganem said that in a conference with superintendents the next day, Riley informed them that he was seeking permission from the Massachusetts Board of Education to mandate grades K-5 eliminate hybrid learning. Ganem reported that, moving forward, hybrid instruction hours would no longer count toward the 180 days of schooling required by law. Any hybrid hours completed after the cutoff would need to be made up, after school, on weekends or during the summer. No decision on grades six through 12 had been announced.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education later voted to give Riley the power to enforce the directive. Chapter 70 state aid will be affected for districts that are not complying with the new mandate.
“There’s not an option for us but to do this,” said Ganem.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy called out Riley’s “lack of respect” for the superintendents and expressed frustration that district leaders first heard about the move through the press conference.
Fellow committee member Patrick Kiernan noted that the timeline for fully inoculating teachers before they are expected to be in a full classroom is tight. If all teachers were vaccinated on the first day they were eligible, March 8, and had their second dose three weeks later, they would need to be teaching full classes one week later. Kennedy pointed out that immunity isn’t fully realized until two weeks after the second dose.
On a side note, Ganem assured that any teacher feeling ill after the second dose of vaccine would not have sick time held against them.
In preparation for the push to end hybrid instruction, a message has been sent out to district families and the teacher’s union, Hampden Wilbraham Education Association (HWEA). A questionnaire on whether families wanted their children to attend in person or remotely was slated to be sent out to parents and caregivers on March 5.
There are many logistical issues around moving so many students back into classrooms together. Ganem said he had already met the Facilities Manager Ed Cenedella regarding moving furniture that has been in storage back into classrooms. Committee Vice-Chair Maura Ryan made the tongue -in-cheek suggestion that Ganem invite Riley to help move the furniture.
Ryan asked about transportation, which has required no more than one student per seat on buses. Ganem explained that DESE has lessened the restrictions on distancing on buses.
Kennedy rhetorically asked if DESE are part of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “So, they’re education experts but they’re making a medical decision,” he continued.
Among the complications to this change, Ganem pointed out that if a student tests positive, the number of close contacts that will have to quarantine will be more extensive.
He also asked, “How are we going to provide lunches 6 feet apart with masks off?” Feeding the students is an organizational struggle that districts are already grappling with, he said.
“I love the idea that we’re going to get our kids back, but we should decide how to do that,” not the state, Kennedy said.
When asked about the possibility of lawsuits from families, Ganem explained that because the move is mandated, the district is free from liability.
Nurse Coordinator Teri Brand said that she would prefer this change have come in the fall, after those who want a vaccine have had one, but said the district just had to work out the details.
Concerning those details, Kiernan asked when parents will be able to see what fully in-person education looks like, but Ganem explained that until he knows how many students will attend five days per week, we won’t know. The last day to get attendance preferences back to the school is March 12. Decisions cannot be changed after that point.
Budget
Turning to another topic, Director of Finance and Operations Aaron Osborne presented the fiscal year 2022 (FY22) budget. He called it an “extremely difficult” budget year and said that the district was pursuing a level funded budget with one “strategic swap” to maintain technology advances.
Osborne laid out the district’s goals, which include keeping class sizes manageable, ensuring socio-emotional services are provided, closing the COVID-19 achievement gap and expanding equity within the district. The strategic swap Osborne mentioned eliminates one English language learner interventionist and funds one technology support position to support the influx of devices and technology-enabled learning in the district over the past year.
Mandated costs, including health insurance, retirement payments, contractual salary raises and transportation, increased by $1,479,692. There were $453,359 in savings and costs offset by transportation credits, out-of-district placements, grants and a full-time vacancy that will not be filled.
In total, the proposed HWRSD budget for FY22 is $50,281,358, up $985,909 from FY21.
The amount paid by each town in a regional school district budget is made up of two parts, the minimum local contribution (MLC) and the remainder of the budget not paid for by other revenue or state aid. The MLC is the minimum amount each town must contribute to the school budget. The state sets this number for each town based on the property value of the municipality and the populations’s reported income. The rest of the budget is split between the towns by student enrollment percentages.
“For FY22, the state used FY20 property valuations and for F21 they used FY18 valuations; so there was a two year gap in valuations despite only a single year of difference. In this time, Wilbraham’s net valuation increased by 7.2 percent while Hampden's increased by 3.6 percent,” Osborne later explained to Reminder Publishing. Wilbraham’s reported income also increased more than Hampden’s during the period the state looked at when setting the MLC.
Wilbraham’s MLC dropped $13,439 from last year, but Hampden’s MLC dropped $269,672. The total, $283,111, that was no longer part of the MLC became part of the amount that is split between the towns by student count. Only 20 percent of students are from Hampden, while 80 percent are from Wilbraham. Hampden’s total assessment is $8,269,080 and Wilbraham’s is $26,269,034.
Osborne said that Hampden’s Finance Committee had agreed to support the budget . School Committee Member Bill Bontempi thanked the towns for their willingness to work with the district, especially Wilbraham, noting the increase in their assessment is “a bitter pill to swallow.”
Osborne cautioned that the only reason the district was able to create a level-funded budget was because of grants that will not be available next year.
One other topic that was debated by the committee was the funding to replace the pool heater at Minnechaug Regional High School. Bontempi asked the committee if it was something they preferred be taken from the school’s stabilization account or paid for out of the district’s general funds. He suggested that instead of putting the regular $50,000 into the account, the committee use $30,000 and use the remainder to pay for the heater. Kiernan said that this was another reason for sports to be funded by the families participating in them, rather than the district. Bontempi suggested that in the future, guidelines be drawn up to determine what uses are eligible for stabilization account funding.