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Date: 3/11/2020
HUNTINGTON – Gateway Regional Superintendent David B. Hopson presented an overview of the fiscal year 2021 (FY21) budget to School Committee members and town officials during a public hearing in the Performing Arts Center on March 4.
Hopson said the joint budget process with the towns began in September, resulting in a budget of $16.6 million, a 1.97 percent or $200,000 increase over FY20. Hopson said it is not quite a level service budget, as there is one less teacher due to attrition.
Priority items for the district are a districtwide literacy initiative and a math initiative in middle school, maintaining Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) activities, and the full-day preschool in Chester and on the main campus.
Other priorities include the new Chapter 74 Early Education and Care vocational program, special education programs, and professional development for staff.
Districtwide priorities include the joint public information effort, a shared economic development director position, a new director of curriculum position, and minor capital improvements.
Hopson said the budget does not include a special education stabilization account, a capital improvement stabilization account, roof replacement, boiler replacement and field renovations.
The superintendent said the budget includes the same rural school aid received last year, which came to $256,000, a little more than 1.5 percent of the budget. If the rural aid is reduced, the budget will be adjusted, and assessments will not increase to the towns, Hopson said.
“The governor did provide a line item for rural school aid,” Hopson said, which he said is a positive.
Following Hopson’s presentation, most of the discussion centered on which above-minimum assessment will go to the towns for a vote at the annual meetings in May and June.
The School Committee has the option of presenting the alternative assessment, which increases the above-minimum contribution of all the towns by the same percentage increase as the school budget; or the statutory assessment, which determines the contribution paid by each town based on the percentage of students from that town in the March 1 census. The School Committee is expected to vote at the March 11 meeting as to which assessment will go to the towns.
The alternative assessment was first proposed in 2017 to help towns budget for their share of Gateway Regional’s assessment. Since the budget cannot increase more than 2.5 percent in any given year, it gives the towns the ability to forecast within that framework. The alternative assessment requires a vote by all six towns to pass.
The statutory assessment based on the March 1 student census in each town can swing widely based on the movement in or out of town of a small number of students, making it difficult for towns to plan their budgets. Passage of the statutory assessment requires a vote by four of the six towns.
This will be the third year that both assessments are an option, after Gateway received permission from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to add the alternative assessment.
The first year, all six towns voted for the alternative assessment, after Chester agreed to offset Russell’s increase through a voluntary $40,000 contribution to Gateway.
Last year, Russell and Montgomery defeated the alternative assessment, both of which would have paid more under the formula.
A comparison of the increases in the two assessments for each town in FY21 shows three towns benefitting this year from the statutory assessment, and three from the alternative assessment.
Blandford will pay $85,975 more than last year for the statutory assessment, compared to $30,548 more for the alternative assessment.
Chester will pay $51,841 less than last year for the statutory assessment, and $30,943 more than last year for the alternative.
Huntington will face an increase of $142,755 for the statutory assessment, compared to an increase of $54,491 for the alternative.
Middlefield will pay $41,058 less than last year for the statutory assessment, and an increase of $10,487 more for the alternative.
Montgomery will pay $83,006 more for the statutory assessment, compared to an increase of $17,762 for the alternative
Russell will pay $30,999 less than last year for the statutory assessment, and $41,607 more for the alternative.
“This is the third year in a row that Russell makes out better on the statutory method,” Hopson said, adding that only in the last three years has Russell not had an increase in the number of students.
He said in small towns, if you add two or three students and everyone else stays the same, “your numbers pop up” under the statutory method.
He gave the example of the town of Middlefield this year, which will see a significant difference between the two assessments, due to a small decrease in the student census.
Even though Chester and Middlefield would pay more for the alternative assessment this year, representatives from both towns said at the meeting they would continue to support the alternative assessment in order to level out increases in the future for budget planning.
“How do we decide what gets put on the warrant,” asked Chester School Committee member Jason Forgue.
“Whatever the School Committee gives the towns as the number by law is what should go on the town warrant,” Hopson said, adding, “What shouldn’t happen is the town puts another number up there or ignores the School Committee.”
Last year, Russell put the statutory assessment on the warrant, although the School Committee had requested the alternative.
Hopson said technically, a town can amend the school assessment number on the floor of the annual town meeting before the vote.
Chester Select Board member John Baldasaro said the cooperation in recent years between the towns and the School Committee has made their job much easier. “Frankly, I’m extremely frustrated that two towns refuse to put the alternative,” Baldasaro said.
In response to a comment that the town had not been attending the joint meetings, Russell Finance committee member Ruth Kennedy said she has attended the meetings and is the appointed representative between Gateway and the Russell select board.
“The alternative assessment will be my recommendation. It’s just the right thing to do,” said Forgue. He also questioned why Montgomery would not support the alternative assessment even when it favors the town.
Huntington School Committee representative Melissa Nazzaro said under the statutory method, towns are penalized for attracting young families. “When one town succeeds, we all succeed; when one town fails, we all fail,” Nazzaro said, adding, “We shouldn’t pit selling to families versus selling to retirees.”
“If we want to have a strong school district, we need to welcome young families,” agreed Hopson.
“I do support the alternative method. We need to welcome young families,” said Chester Finance Committee member Andy Myers, adding, “I would like to compliment Gateway on the 1.97 percent increase and on the budget process.”