Dr. David Hopson
HUNTINGTON – During their August meeting, the school committee began working on three potential amendments to Gateway’s Regional Agreement. These amendments relate to the makeup of the school committee, Worthington’s withdrawal from the district, and setting the percentage of capital costs to be paid by towns that withdraw from the district. Once the school committee finalizes the proposed amendments, legal counsel will draw up articles for town meetings. The changes will next have to be approved by the state, and then the towns will have the opportunity to vote on the changes. Under the regional agreement, any amendment must be approved by all seven towns in order to pass, meaning that any one town may stop the amendment from being adopted.
The school committee voted unanimously on the amendment to change the makeup of the committee. This amendment was previously labeled as the ‘one-man, one-vote’ issue. Under state law (Chapter 71, Section 14E), it is the committee’s understanding that it may follow one of five options for electing regional school committee members. These are (1) electing committee members by votes in member towns with each town’s number of seats related to its population (the so called proportional representation); (2) electing members in district-wide elections to be held at biennial state elections (in which all school committee members could be from one town, the “at-large” representation); (3) electing members with residency requirements in district-wide elections to be held at biennial state elections (the “senate model”, ensuring that each town has representation on the committee); (4) weighing the votes of committee members according to the town they represent (similar to option 1); and (5) appointing members by town officials. Over the past decades, the district has recommended both the proportional representation (#1) and district-wide elections with residency requirements (#3). During the August meeting, the committee once again moved forward option 3, essentially creating a 14-person committee with two members with residency requirements in each town being elected in district-wide elections to be held at biennial state elections and changing the term of office from 3 years to 4 years.
The amendment related to the withdrawal of Worthington from the district, which was properly requested by Worthington under the existing district agreement, was tabled by the committee. The motion to table was made and approved to provide time for school committee members to discuss this amendment with town officials before moving forward with creating an article for town meetings. This amendment essentially outlines the changes in the regional agreement that would occur if Worthington were to withdraw from the district.
The third amendment was not taken up at the August meeting. This amendment would fix the percentage of capital costs paid for by a town withdrawing from the district at the percentage of the capital cost at the time the capital project was approved and bonded. As requested by the school committee, I will be outlining the implications of this amendment and its pros and cons as the committee moves forward with considering what action it wishes to take on this item.
The potential changes to the regional agreement are available for public review on the district website (www.grsd.org) under school committee presentations. As everyone knows, any changes to the regional agreement are significant and entail a detailed and lengthy process involving the school committee, the state, and our seven towns. I’m sure that much more information will be forthcoming as the committee moves forward in addressing these potential amendments to the district agreement.
Gateway fees are unchanged for 2012-13
HUNTINGTON – Student fees for the 2012-13 school year are unchanged, and the lowered parking rates adopted by the high school last spring will remain in effect for the coming year.
Sports fees will remain at $132 per sport ($100 per sport for students qualifying for reduced lunch, and $66 per sport for those qualifying for free lunch).
A family cap (which includes parking fees) remains at $700 per family ($525 for those on reduced lunch and $350 for those on free lunch).
Effective March 6, 2012, parking fees for the year were reduced to $220 ($165 for students who qualify for reduced lunch and $110 for those qualifying for free lunch). The new fee is the same percentage of the cost to bus a student to school, that the athletic fee is as a percentage of the cost of playing a sport). Additional rates are earmarked for semester, monthly, weekly, and daily fees.
The biggest changes in the parking fees come from reimbursing students for a percentage of their parking fee. Previously, students received 50% of their fee back if they went a semester without being late to school.
Students are now reimbursed for not being tardy for a month (25%), for having fewer than three unexcused tardies in a month (10%), for earning first (25%) or second honors (15%) in a marking period, for earning good citizen recognition (25% for not having any disciplinary actions); and for students who are doing work study, internships, off-campus classes during or immediately after school and supervised/arranged by the school (25%).
Also changing were the procedures for enforcing the new parking rules. Students who do not have a valid pass on their car will be called to the office to pay their fee for up to three times. Penalties will progress for students who continue to not pay for their parking fee, from assessing a late fee the fourth time to towing the vehicle and permanently revoking parking privileges on the ninth time.
Under the new system, students meeting the reimbursement options could pay between 0 and $55 a year for parking.
