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Date: 1/20/2022
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) hosted a roundtable on Jan. 13 to discuss funding issues. They were joined by members of the Wilbraham Finance Committee, the Hampden Advisory Board and the Boards of Selectmen from both towns, as well as state Rep. Brian Ashe and Joel McAuliffe, deputy chief of staff for state Sen. Eric Lesser.
School Committee member Bill Bontempi led the discussion among the group of roughly 25 people. Topics included special education, transportation reimbursement, and grants, all with the goal of finding a more sustainable way to educate students.
Grant Writer
The topic that received the most debate was that of the district hiring a grant writer who would also supplement grants written on behalf of the towns. While personnel from different departments in the district write grant proposals, HWRSD Superintendent Albert Ganem said the district needs to find and manage grants beyond the current pool of those offered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
The average salary for a grant writer is in the area is $51,005, according to the job search platform ZipRecruiter, although Ganem estimated the job could cost the district up to $100,000. Nonetheless, he said the position would pay for itself.
Director of Finance and Operations Aaron Osborne ran through a list of grants the district is either seeking or has recently been awarded totaling over $1 million.
School Committee member Sean Kennedy commented, “With a grant writer, we can do so much more.”
Bontempi agreed, “You might end up with a budget surplus,” but he did acknowledge that it was a gamble.
Osborne pointed out there was more to grants than writing proposals. There is also the work of managing them. He used a metaphor, “All these grants, as much as we go fishing for them, someone has to kill them and gut them, too.” On the same point, Ganem agreed that the paperwork that goes along with the grants is a lot of work.
Wilbraham Finance Committee Chair Marc Ducey gave his opinion. “The town does a pretty good job of [writing grants],” he said. “There’s town needs that we’re not meeting every year.” He added that the district should use its internal resources rather than create a new position. Finance Committee member Sue Bunnell nodded her head in agreement.
Jeffrey Farnsworth, a member of the Wilbraham Finance Committee asked for a cost/benefit analysis – data that can show, “would this person reasonably obtain enough money to make it worth it?”
Ganem disagreed with Ducey’s statement that the department heads are the experts on securing grants for their departments. Professional grant writers “know where to look,” Ganem said. “The expert isn’t the fire chief or the superintendent. It’s the people with training in grants with department heads advising.”
Osborne said they may be able to carve the grant writer’s salary out of some of the grants they bring into the district or towns. Wilbraham Finance Committee member Peter Dufresne pointed out that most grants have very specific guidelines on what the money can be used for and therefore, the district couldn’t use some of it to pay for the position.
In reference to Dusfresne’s comment, Wilbraham Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Carolyn Brennan acknowledged, “It is true that you get very specific grants for your department.”
Brennan offered her perspectives as a former department head, a town administrator in another municipality and an elected official. “There is a lot of value,” to having a person who can work with the state and department heads.
John Flynn, a member of the Hampden Board of Selectmen and a small business owner, opined that the “majority” of the school districts he works with use grant writers.
“It takes money to make money,” said Hampden Board of Selectmen Chair Donald Davenport, speaking in favor of employing a grant writer. “Small towns are not going to exist unless we work together.”
“I’m in favor of the concept of it,” said Wilbraham Finance Committee Vice Chair Kevin Hanks, but “I’m not convinced the resources aren’t already there.” He floated the idea of a trial period.
Hampden Advisory Board Co-Chair Doug Boyd offered a different option. “Bring in a consultant who can train existing department heads. Flynn said that idea might be a good first step.
Bontempi suggested everyone present bring the idea back to their respective bodies and meet again in March.
Special Education
HWRSD Director of Student Services Gina Roy explained that a larger than usual number of students with special needs had come into the district in the 2021-2022 school year – an unexpected and unbudgeted expense.
Students who may pose a danger to themselves or others are given a 45-day diagnostic, after which they may be placed in an out-of-district (OOD) program that can address their needs. In 2018-2019, the district had two of these students, with one the following year and four in 2020-2021. This year, Roy said, six students had gone through this process, with four more out for referral. Osborne said each out of district placement costs between $100,000 and $120,000.
The circuit breaker is a state program designed to reimburse districts for some of the costs related to providing students with special needs the “free and appropriate education” required by law. The first $47,000 of the OOD is the responsibility of the district, after which the state splits the cost with the school district. Bontempi noted it could cost more than $1 million if all 10 of those students need OOD placements.
Ashe told the district adjustments to the circuit breaker are “under discussion” but that it was still too early in the budget process to have anything definitive. When asked what the School Committee could do to help impress their need upon the legislature, Ashe said a collective letter to the state House of Representatives president would have some impact.
McAuliffe agreed that it was early in the process. He said legislators are aware that this disproportionately affects Western Massachusetts and is a “structural issue.”
Davenport asked the legislators if part of the state’s allocated funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) could be used toward the issue. McAuliffe said funding from ARPA is “still on the table,” and may be “rolled into a supplemental budget.”
Boyd said he sees it as a mirror to the long-standing regional transportation reimbursement issue in that “every dollar” of regional transportation or special education that the state does not contribute has to come from taxpayers.
Transportation
In 2014, the state established a fund to reimburse regional school districts for the cost of transporting general education students. This has been a thorny issue because the funding is subject to appropriation and districts are rarely reimbursed 100 percent.
Osborne said the reimbursement rate for FY22 is over 90 percent. He called the figure “welcome,” as most years the rate is lower. The general education transportation budget is $1.6 million, Bontempi said.
Dusfresne said an analysis done roughly five years ago showed the state has underfunded the reimbursement by $7 million since the program began and that money had to come from the towns.
“The easiest way,” for the state to help school districts is to fully fund the reimbursement, Boyd said. He asked the legislators to ensure the state fund existing programs before creating new ones.
McAuliffe said the regional transportation reimbursement is something Lesser and his fellow legislators had been working on “for years.”
School Committee member Patrick Kiernan suggested the law be changed to allow regional districts to charge a fee to ride the bus to fund the transportation. Ducey noted that a fee system would streamline bus routes. Instead of buses being required to stop at pickup locations whether or not it is used by students, the bus drivers would only need to go to locations that are opted into by paying families. He said it might save on transportation costs.
Kiernan also noted the lack of sidewalks makes it difficult to walk to school. He proposed changing the law around Community Preservation funding to make sidewalks projects eligible. After all, he argued, sidewalks are used for recreation.
“Your points are well-taken,” McAuliffe said, adding that he would take them back to Boston. He noted legislators had allocated a lot of money for the Complete Streets, a state funding program which Hampden and Wilbraham are not currently participating.
Ashe called the transportation reimbursement “a constant battle.” Of Kiernan’s suggestions, Ashe said, “That seems to make a lot of sense,” but said he has “no idea” what the legislative appetite is regarding changing the laws around community preservation funding and charging for bus use.
Dufresne noted that non-regional districts do not have to provide a seat for every student, whether it is used or not and legislators may not see a need to change the Community Preservation Act rules as a result.
Bontempi suggested the School Committee draft a letter to the legislative delegation with specific issues in need of addressing.
Town Assessments
Moving on to the issue of town assessments, Bontempi reminded those gathered that each town’s assessment was a combination of the minimum local contribution (MLC) and enrollment figures. The MLC is calculated by adding each town’s property values and net income and multiplying it by a percentage, which is adjusted annually.
Bontempi said that as the MLC drops due, in part, to a shifting formula, the towns are required to make up the difference in assessments.
Ashe said he “wasn’t aware” the decreasing formula was impacting assessments in this way. He said supplemental ARPA funding will be considered in the next few months, which may help the district and towns.
The regional agreement between the two towns requires assessments to be calculated based on enrollment. Enrollment has been shifting in the past few years, from 75 percent Wilbraham students and 25 percent Hampden students to nearly 80 percent of students coming from Wilbraham. This leaves Wilbraham responsible for $4 of every $5 not covered by the MLC. Last year, Wilbraham absorbed more than $226,000 as a result of this, while Hampden’s assessment fell.
Ducey said it is “not sustainable,” for Wilbraham to shoulder the brunt of the assessments due to the enrollment numbers. He suggested the towns consider how other regional districts work.
Boyd said his town’s declining assessment is, “great for Hampden in the short run, but the programs offered [in schools] becomes a calculation of what Wilbraham can afford.” He also noted the shift in population is not good for the community. According to the 2020 census, Hampden has lost more than 140 residents in the past decade. “From a vitality perspective, we need to attract younger families with children in the schools.”
Boyd suggested using a 10- to 15-year history of enrollment, rather than a yearly figure.
“It just slows the change down,” Ducey said.
Davenport commented, “There must be some other formula.” Bunnell asked for a list of funding mechanisms for regional districts in the state.
Bontempi said most regional districts base enrollment figures on a five-year rolling average. Osborne confirmed that two districts he has worked for in the past had calculated their enrollment that way.
Ducey mentioned that any change to the regional agreement must go through a vote at Town Meeting, so a change would not be possible until May 2023 at the earliest.
The officials from all sides agreed to send members to form a working group to hammer out a solution. There will be a second roundtable on March 3 at 6:30 p.m. to continue the talks.