Philip Winterson, Chairman of the Russell Finance Committee, speaks with Gateway Pupil Services Director Alice Taverna about the budget. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Gateway reduces student parking fees
by Amy Porter
Hilltown correspondent
Student parking fees were reduced, and representatives from member towns once again came to the Gateway Regional School Committee meeting last night to give a strong message to the District that the towns do not want increases in the school budget this year.
After hearing from parents at the Jan. 25 meeting of the School Committee, and after Dr. Hopson met twice with the student council, a motion was made to reduce the student parking fee down to $220 from its previous level of $264 per year. For students qualifying for reduced lunches, the cost will be $165, and for students qualifying for free lunches, the cost will be $110. Reductions will also be offered on a merit basis developed by the student council. No tardies, based upon a month by month report, will reduce the fee by 25 percent the following month. A GPA of 3.5 per quarter, will also reduce the fee by 25 percent, as will good citizen recognition (no disciplinary action), and participation in work-study, internships, and off-campus classes.
Enforcement of parking regulations will range from being called to the office to pay, resulting in a $5 fine at the fourth occurrence; a $25 fine and a boot on the sixth occurrence, followed by internal suspension, towing and lost privileges.
The motion to charge $220 annually for student parking passed the School Committee with one opposed. The next highest student parking fee next to Gateway is Belchertown School District, which charges $80.
The bulk of last night’s meeting centered on the FY13 Gateway budget. For the third meeting in a row, representatives of member towns came and spoke about its impact on their towns.
Gene Bishop, of the Chester Select Board, said that having downloaded the original Gateway budget request (Version 1.1), he noticed an increase of $74,118 in Chester’s assessment, which represents a more than 5 percent increase to the town. Bishop said, “There is no way that we can raise more than 2.5 percent.”
Pandora Hague of Russell said their Select Board discussed the budget Tuesday night. “I know that the budget is up 1.4 percent, and that state aid is down. As a district, we should be more proactive. You should talk to Richie Neal, and go to the top. Tell them how hard it is for the Hilltowns. If you raise the budget 1.4 percent, and state aid goes down, that puts it on the towns.” The 1.4 percent increase includes a requested 0.6 percent increase in the school budget, and $105,000 for the stabilization fund. The increase, coupled with a decrease in revenues, results in an overall assessment increase to the towns from FY12 of 5.6 percent.
Philip Winterson, Chairman of the Russell Finance Committee, presented a letter to the School Committee, requesting that the original procedures be restored for ”depositing money into and voting it out of the Gateway stabilization fund.” When the fund was originally established in 2008 to accrue money for completing extraordinary maintenance items or capital improvement projects, it required a vote from 4 of the 7 towns to allocate money to the funds, and approval by a 2/3 majority of the school committee and subsequent approval by the towns in order to expend the money. Currently, appropriations from the stabilization fund are approved by a two-thirds majority of the school committee, without further action by the towns. The Russell Finance Committee voted unanimously to ask the school committee to retain the original procedures. The School Committee took the request under advisement.
Going forward, Dr. Hopson said, “The schools are asking for less money this year than we did four years ago. It’s my job to work with the teachers to come up with the best educational plan for the level of funding.” Hopson then asked the committee to vote on which budget to bring forward to the Wednesday, March 7 budget hearing, which will be held at the Gateway School auditorium.
Hopson said to decrease the originally requested budget would mean the following reductions to the School District: Level funded, a decrease of $233,379; average 2.5 percent assessment increase, a decrease of 293,937; average 0 percent assessment increase, a decrease of $530,808. To get all the towns to a 0 percent assessment increase, a decrease of $805,080.
Hopson said to School Committee members, “I’d like you to decide tonight so the leadership team could decide which cuts would hurt kids the least.”
Ron Damon, Huntington committee member, asked, “How much are we going to hurt our students if we go to level funding?”
Hopson said, “I think realistically a level-funded budget would not take away a lot from the students.”
Worthington member Sue Levreault said, “We’ve done a lot for the elementary students, a lot with technology, we need to look at our curriculum. If we have students that can’t get the courses they want, then we will lose students to school choice. I think right now we are not meeting the educational needs of students in the high school and maybe in the junior high.”
“If we keep cutting, cutting, cutting, then we’re going to lose students and eventually the district,” Levreault added.
Ron Damon said, “I’m hesitant to vote for level-funding. I suggest we stop thinking about major reductions, and start thinking about educating kids.” Damon then made a motion to vote on Version 1.1, with no reductions.
Philip Winterson of Russell told the committee, “You have to pay attention to the towns. In Russell’s case, we are looking for level funding (in our assessment). There’s not much more we can do. We have the highest taxes.
“It’s a good idea to get our state officials out here,” Winterson added. “The school committee also has to go to the towns and talk to them. I can tell you right now, that if it’s the level-funded budget or Version 1.1, as it stands right now, Russell will vote no.”
The motion to pass Version 1.1 of the Gateway budget failed. A motion was then made for level funding of the school budget. The motion was carried with nine in favor, four opposed.
Following the meeting, Winterson said, “This is a reprise of what happened a year ago. We told them we couldn’t deal with the increase, the towns turned it down. We finally got it passed in September. It sounds like we’re going right down the same road.”
