HUNTINGTON – At Wednesday’s Gateway Regional School Committee meeting, members reviewed a letter written by chair Michele Crane of Blandford to the Gateway district towns, thanking them for their input in the budget process.
The School Committee voted at its March 9 meeting to adopt the FY17 budget with an amendment to reconsider town assessments once the Senate and House of Representatives pass their versions of the state budget. Crane stated in the letter that reductions will be possible if the state makes good “on promises to help increase transportation reimbursement and Chapter 70 funding.”
The budget that the School Committee passed was reduced by over $400,000 from last year, but assessments to the towns increased by approximately $190,000 overall. Prior to the vote, the towns of Blandford, Chester, Huntington and Middlefield had sent identical letters to the committee requesting that town assessments be kept at last year’s levels.
“The members of the school committee heard your concerns about assessments, and we are hoping to be able to make further reductions in those assessments,” Crane wrote. She also stated that the School Committee is required to use any additional Chapter 70 funding to reduce assessments.
“The committee wants to keep the lines of communication open,” Crane said in the letter. “We are willing to hear your ideas on how to make the budget assessments affordable while keeping up the quality of our educational offerings for our students.”
The budget will be reconsidered at the next School Committee meeting on April 27, and adjustments will be made if any additional funding has been received, in advance of annual town meetings in May and June.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Gateway Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson reported that earlier in the day he had attended a rural school organizational meeting at Mohawk Trail Regional School District in Shelburne Falls. Hopson said 16 superintendents attended the meeting.
“Everyone is facing the same issues we are,” Hopson said, adding that their purpose for organizing is to form a group to “lobby” together for increased funding to rural schools in the face of financial unsustainability.
Rural schools comprise 19 percent of the public school districts, 9 percent of the public school population and 69 percent of the geographic footprint in Massachusetts, according to the Mohawk Trail presentation.
Hopson also reported that 13 Requests for Proposal (RFPs) were picked up. The RFPs will allow a consultant to help move the district forward, as required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) when it took over Dec. 1 after Gateway member towns failed to pass a FY16 budget. Hopson said one party already declined because the time frame of six months was too tight. The due date for the RFP is March 29.
