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Date: 3/10/2022
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) hosted its second budget roundtable of the year on March 3 and was joined by the Hampden Advisory Board, the Wilbraham Finance Committee and the Boards of Selectmen from both towns. Director of Finance, Operations and Human Resources Aaron Osborne presented a draft of the budget for fiscal year 2023 (FY23).
The total price tag for FY23 as presented in draft form was $51.04 million, an increase of $758,808, or 1.51 percent, from FY22. There are an additional $2.1 million in mandatory costs, such as health insurance, retirement, out-of-district costs for students who need services not offered by HWRSD, transportation and contractual salary increases.
These increases are partially offset by $834,270 in pandemic-related grants, bond interest and an increase in the Circuit Breaker – a reimbursement from the state for a portion of special education expenses – as well as other cost saving measures.
Osborne described the budget crafted by the School Committee Budget Subcommittee as “needs-based.” He said it prioritizes continuing the technology gains the district has made, supporting students’ emotional well-being, closing the achievement gaps left in the wake of pandemic-induced learning disruptions and expanding the district’s understanding of equity. At the same time, the budget was designed to keep assessments manageable, prioritize cost-effective programs and take student class sizes into consideration.
To do this, the district plans to make some staffing changes. Some nursing personnel will be cut at Thornton W. Burgess School, saving roughly $29,000, while leaving “adequate” nursing staff available, Osborne said in his presentation. Several positions will be added, including an assistant principal at Minnechaug Regional High School (MRHS), teachers for grade 1 and grade 3 at Green Meadows School and special education teachers at Green Meadows School and MRHS.
The cost of the special education personnel will be offset by an increase in the circuit breaker. The assistant principal and elementary teachers will cost $100,000 and $140,000, respectively, but Osborne suggested a somewhat controversial revenue stream to pay for them.
Despite traditionally limiting School Choice positions to the high school, Osborne presented a plan to add the following number of students from other municipalities to Green Meadows: up to five students in each of the six classes of grades 1 and 3, up to three students in each of the two grade 2 classes and up to five students in the two grade 4 classes. The maximum of new School Choice at Green Meadows would be 41.
At Mile Tree Elementary School, up to five new School Choice positions would open across the seven classes and Stony Hill would include 10 new students split between seven classrooms. MRHS would add 10 students in grades 9 and 10, bringing the School Choice numbers up from 25 per grade to 35. Even with these additions, class sizes would not exceed 20 students, Osborne said.
The district receives $5,000 for each School Choice Student brought into the district, more for those who have an individualized education plan (IEP). These additions would net $380,000 in revenue in FY23. Osborne made the case that, in the years, the funding would continue to help offset the annual budget and the increase in enrollment would allow the district to offer expanded services.
Osborne reminded the municipal leaders that HWRSD would not be responsible for out-of-district placements for School Choice students with intensive needs or transportation. The students would have the same rights as resident students, he said.
Osborne said the cost of education was outpacing the towns’ ability to support it and, “The district’s only response to fiscal challenges cannot be to simply cut vital staff and/or programs.”
School Committee member Patrick Kiernan reminded the group that the rule of thumb has traditionally been to limit the number of School Choice students at the high school to no more than 10 percent of the total student population. With this plan, School Choice seats would account for 18 percent of the elementary student body.
“Is that what we want the schools to look like?” Kiernan asked. Bontempi acknowledged there may be concerns about “the dilution effect.”
Wilbraham Finance Committee member Peter Dufresne said the district needs to define their reasoning for increasing School Choice, whether it is for financial or diversity reasons. He said either can work but the district must have a clear understanding of the role it would play.
Wilbraham Finance Committee Chair Marc Ducey said he has been a long-time supporter of School Choice but had concerns that a sudden increase in enrollment could impact class sizes. Superintendent Albert Ganem explained that there would need to be 14 new grade one students to increase each class by just two seats.
Wilbraham Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Carolyn Brennan questioned the reasons behind the decreasing enrollment trend. She said her constituents want school to go “back to the basics,” and people have turned to homeschooling because of concerns that students may be learning critical race theory. The intellectual examination of the intersection between race and various aspects of society is not a part of the district’s curriculum.
Chair of the Wilbraham Board of Selectmen Robert Boilard wondered about the role of charter schools in the district’s enrollment levels, which have decreased by 900 students since 2010. He said changes to the towns’ populations are leading to fewer families with school-age children. Ganem agreed. At a March 7 meeting of the Hampden Advisory Committee, Co-Chair Doug Boyd said the stagnation of population is a “conversation worth having.”
Turning toward the perennial issue of regional transportation reimbursement, the state is obligated to fully fund it under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 71, Section 16c. Because the reimbursement is dependent on allocations from the governor’s budget, it is rarely ever funded above 80 percent.
“We shouldn’t accept anything less than 100 percent,” Ganem said.
Dufresne compared the struggle with the state of transportation funding to Don Quixote’s futile battle with a windmill in 17th century author Miguel de Cervantes’ epic story. Boyd later compared it to a different literary classic. “It’s like Oliver Twist, asking for more,” he said, referring to the Charles Dickens book.
Hampden Board of Selectmen Chair Donald Davenport spoke to Robin Frechette, the legislative aide for state Rep. Brian Ashe, and said state revenue is up 16.9 percent over expected levels. “Look behind the couch cushions,” he remarked.
Frechette acknowledged, “You’re right, there are funds available.” She said transportation has always been an issue and that she would take the expressed concerns back to Ashe so he could continue pushing for full reimbursement.
Assessments
The towns’ bills from the district are determined using a minimum local contribution (MLC) for each town, calculated based on property values and income. Whatever is not covered by the MLC is split between the towns based on yearly enrollment, which is about 20 percent Hampden students and 80 percent Wilbraham students.
This year’s total are $8.31 million for Hampden, up $275,966 from FY22, and $28 million for Wilbraham, $801,651 more than FY22. Wilbraham’s Finance Committee had told Osborne that the town was willing to increase its assessment by no more than $771,393 for the upcoming fiscal year, but Ducey indicated there was some room for negotiation.
At the last roundtable, the officials discussed the way assessments are calculated. Members of the School Committee had made the argument that a five-year rolling average would ease the effect of drastic enrollment changes in any one year.
At the March 3 meeting, Bontempi presented a list of the assessment calculations for each of the 34 regional districts in Massachusetts. Of them, 18 use a single year of enrollment, either solely or in combination with the MLC. Four districts use a three-year rolling average, and seven districts use a five-year average, with some of each also utilizing the MLC. Four districts used unique methods that did not easily fall into any of those categories.
The committee agreed to conduct further research on a more sustainable way to calculate assessments, but any change to the district’s regional agreement, including assessment calculations, will need to be approved by voters in both towns.
Grant Writer
At the previous roundtable, the district had floated the idea of a sharing a grant writer with the towns. At that time, officials wanted to see a cost benefit analysis of the position. At this meeting, Osborne presented a list of grants secured by the district over the past three years. In 2021 alone, the district acquired a total of $867,731 in competitive grants. The district also received over $1.43 million in entitlement grants that are routinely offered and $2.45 million in pandemic-related grants. The amounts are relatively average for the past three years, except for the pandemic grants which began in 2021. Most of these grants were written by one of four people in the district who sought the funds while carrying out their normal duties.
“We’re pulling in $900,000 in competitive grants,” Bontempi said, making the case that a dedicated employee could secure even more. Ganem added that grants don’t end when they are approved, work goes into implementing them. More research will need to be done on the topic.
Stadium Seating
One topic that generated a good deal of conversation was the repair or replacement of stadium seating at the Falcon Field. The bleachers, which came from the previous Minnechaug Regional High School, have been repaired several times, but are deteriorated to such a point that they may pose a safety liability. Replacing the seating will cost approximately $1 million, but Osborne said a $50,000 repair may extend the bleachers’ life for about five years.
If an accident were to occur, Kiernan said, “That cost is going to be substantial.”
Ducey said Wilbraham has been contributing to the Minnechaug Stabilization Fund annually. “We’re giving you money for all these projects and then have to go to Capital [Planning] and ask for more,” he asked.
Kiernan responded, “$300,000 doesn’t take care of all the needs.”
Ducey suggested the district’s Excess and Deficiency Fund be used for the repairs, but Ganem said the Minnechaug Stabilization Fund is a “rainy day fund.”
Boyd reminded everyone that the communities were critical of how the original Minnechuag Regional High School was maintained, leading to a short life span of about 50 years. The stabilization fund was created for “long-term planned obsolescence,” of systems and structures at the school. “It’s not something we tap lightly,” he said.
Kiernan asked about moving athletics to a user-funded program, a proposal he has broached before. Osborne told him the change could be modeled to determine its effectiveness.
Wilbraham Town Administrator Nick Breault asked if outside money had been sought for the replacement. School Committee member Sean Kennedy quipped, “Maybe if we had a grant writer.”
Superintendent
Earlier in the evening, the School Committee conducted a meeting to discuss the superintendent search. The committee decided that it would be too complex to conduct its own search and would therefore hire a search firm. While several firms responded to a request for pricing, only a few sent a full list of services. The committee must decide whether to send out an official request for proposals or choose from a list of state-approved contracts.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recently issued a Public Education Letter addressing Ganem’s hiring of his wife and daughter during the 2020-2021 school year when understaffing was high due to the pandemic. In the letter, DESE stated that they had found “reasonable cause to believe [Ganem] violated the conflict-of-interest law by participating in the hiring of his spouse and daughter to positions in the school district.”
The letter stated Ganem addressed understaffing at an elementary school by directing a subordinate to hire his spouse, a licensed teacher, then approved the hiring. Later, when internal staff could not be found to fill all needed summer school positions, the letter reads, Ganem “offered to ask his daughter, a licensed special education teacher in another district, if she was interested, and told the staff member she was not obligated to hire his daughter.”
Ganem told Reminder Publishing that he had made “a mistake” in not alerting the School Committee to the conflict of interest, as required. He expressed his regret and assured that both women were qualified educators who were hired due to dire circumstances. DESE did not require any other action to be taken to rectify the issue.