HUNTINGTON – A public hearing was held last night on the proposed $16.9 million Gateway Regional School District budget for the fiscal year 2015.
The hearing, held in the auditorium at Gateway Regional High School, lasted just over an hour and a half, and saw local leaders ask some tough questions of Superintendent Dr. David Hopson and the School Committee.
Many of the early questions from the 45 or so district residents had to do with rising costs in health insurance for the district, which saw an increase of $65,000, and administrative costs, which would account for $870,866 in the Version 1.1 budget.
“People are asking about the impact a school’s administration has on the bottom line of a budget,” said Dan Jacques, chair of the Town of Montgomery’s Select Board. “It would be helpful to explain what people and what roles comprise the administration, the importance of those roles, and how much it costs the district on a daily basis.”
“Essentially our entire administrative team is less than it has been in previous years,” Hopson answered. “Before, when we had five elementary principals, a middle school principal and assistant principal, a high school principal and assistant principal, and curriculum, business office, and technology people, and the Superintendent… Even at that point ten years ago, it took a lot of time and effort, as building principals were doing a lot of title and curriculum work.”
He added that there has been a significant increase in requirements for administrators.
“There’s a complete change in evaluation of teachers and administrative staff, “Hopson said. “It now requires about three times as much effort and visits in the classroom.”
Hopson used Joanne Blocker, the district’s Director of Academics, as an example. Blocker oversees curriculum work and changes to state standards, homeschooling applications and approvals, professional development, and title work with the district’s grant writer.
“There are multiple layers that are now required of administrators that were never required before,” he said.
Under Version 1.1 of the FY15 proposed budget, the district’s two central administrative officers, Hopson and Business and Finance Officer Stefanie Fisk, would see no increases in their wages, and would make $153,029 and $94,920, respectively, in FY15.
Hopson also stated that the average teacher salary in the district would be 55 to 58 percent of the average administrative salary, and highlighted other budgetary concerns such as per pupil funding, for which Gateway paid around $14,619 as far back as the fiscal year 2013.
“When we do per pupil cost, we do the state average,” he said, adding that other municipalities statewide get help on other expenditures, while regional districts pay full freight. “Boston pays only $20,000 to heat their buildings, the remainder comes from city budgets. Even regional school districts, we (Gateway) are neither at the top or bottom, we’re somewhere in the middle.”
Other community leaders like Darlene McVeigh, chair of the Town of Huntington’s Finance Committee, came prepared with three pages of detailed questions for district leadership.
“Everyone here in this audience who works, we’ve had to take on a lot of responsibilities over the last five years, everyone who sits here in this audience can tell you they’ve had to take on more work,” she said. “Most people who sit in this audience don’t get 33 to 38 days of vacation. They don’t get holiday time and two personal days. When they (your administrative staff) sit in front of everyone here, they need to understand people in this district.”
“How are you going to take this $16 million and improve the quality of education and our test scores for Gateway?” she asked.
McVeigh said that she wants more transparency about the qualifications of teachers and administrators, a sentiment which seemed to divide the hall.
“I disagree with micromanaging the school district as far as finding out qualifications of our administrators,” said one Chester man. “We should trust that the administrators who’ve been hired were qualified and knowledgeable about whom they seek at the positions they need to fill.”
“As a taxpayer, I’m not interested in looking at resumes to see who is qualified and who is not. Not all taxpayers need to micromanage the executive committee and administrators,” he said.
“I’m really pleased with what I’m hearing here tonight, with the questions that are being answered, that people care enough about the school system,” said Pandora Hague of the Russell Select Board. “We’re all here because we’re concerned about our children’s education, and the more questions that are answered, the more feedback we have, the stronger school system we’re going to have.”
“I think we covered a lot of ground,” said Hopson at the conclusion of the meeting. “You heard Stefanie (Fisk) say there’d be some changes since we put that first budget together. Those changes will go to the School Committee next week.”
Hopson said that the Committee only has one more week to compose its final budget, and they can hold one more special meeting should they fail to make it happen next week.
“There’s not a lot of time, because by the time the Governor’s budget comes out, you’ve got 45 days before the first town meeting, which is the first Saturday in May,” Hopson said. “It’s a pretty tight window.”
Hopson stated that the Governor’s budget came out in January, but that he and the rest of the Committee won’t know real numbers until the House and the Senate compromise on their budgets, the timeframe of which, he said, is anyone’s guess.
“If we’re lucky, and they do an early resolution, we may have that at the end of May, but I’m not really looking to get that until the end of June,” he said.
