(L-R) Jay Barry and Steve Hemman of the Mass. Assoc. of Regional Schools discuss issues facing Gateway with Montgomery School Committee member Madelyn Austin, Huntington selectmen Darlene McVeigh and Karon Hathaway and Gateway superintendent David B. Hopson on Wednesday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
HUNTINGTON – At a joint meeting of the Hilltown Collaborative and Gateway School Committee at Stanton Hall on Wednesday, school and town officials said the budget released on Tuesday by Governor Charles Baker offered no help to the hilltowns.
“With the numbers from the state, the actual (Gateway) budget has a 1.9% increase. Unfortunately, the Governor’s budget doesn’t help us. Assessments (to the towns) will be up 3.75%,” said Gateway Superintendent David B. Hopson.
Hopson said the school was able to keep its increase low while funding a full-day pre-school and adding a new Chapter 74 vocational program for Early Education, but the increase from the state is almost twice for assessments.
“The state conference call yesterday was really very discouraging,” said Huntington Selectman and School Committee member Darlene McVeigh, who said that regional transportation funding is also going down. “The poorer communities are subsidizing the richer suburbs out of Boston,” McVeigh said, adding, “What I think this legislation did was take an opportunity gap for our kids and made it bigger.”
McVeigh went on to say that the hilltowns need to get a stronger voice. She said a lot of ideas have been presented to legislators, including a rural funding initiative which increases funding per pupil for schools with less than 21 students per square mile and not more than the state average per capita income. However, the initiative was underfunded, with $1.5 million to be divided by 31 schools/districts.
Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) Assistant Executive Director Stephen R. Hemman, who chaired the facilitated discussion, said the request for Rural School Aid was for $5 million, separate from Chapter 70 school aid.
According to a handout, Gateway received $157,048 in Rural School Aid in FY19. If the district received the same amount in FY20, assessments would be reduced by the same amount for a total assessment increase of 2.1% or $191,971. In the current proposal, assessments are increased by $349,019.
Business manager Stephanie Fisk said the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is changing the plan for Rural School Aid, before they even see reports from school districts, which are due Feb. 1. The reports require districts to submit a plan outlining the steps they will take to increase collaboration, consolidation or other efficiencies over the next three fiscal years 2019 to 2021.
Proposed regional school transportation reimbursement for Gateway is also down by $50,056, from $656,594 in FY19, to $606,529 for FY20. Chapter 70 funding was increased in the Governor’s budget by a minimum of $20 per student (860 students), for a total increase of only $17,200 for Gateway.
“I’m semi-hopeful that the budget will be a tough sell; if we push the issue across the state,” Hopson said.
Another issue for the Gateway district is the $1.1 million remaining over the next five years on reimbursement to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for the now closed Blandford and Russell elementary schools.
Hilltown Collaborative chair Andy Myers said that the district has been in the program, paid it, and followed its obligation for 15 years, and is asking for forgiveness, or “claw back” for the last five years; but the MSBA is holding firm on the debt due.
The district is lobbying Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, Rep. Natalie Blais and Sen. Adam Hinds to submit legislation requesting forgiveness of the debt due to declining enrollment at Gateway and an aging population in the towns. At the time the schools were built, the state was projecting increased enrollment in the towns.
Hopson said another possible avenue for debt forgiveness is to ask the legislators to set aside the $1.1 million as an outside budget item that would pay down the debt this year.
“If we can get Smitty and Blais and Hinds to file an outside amendment, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) and the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents) will back this,” Hopson said. He said one argument for it is that Gateway was hut when the state allowed Worthington to withdraw outside of the regional agreement, and this $1.1 million would fix it.
“It’s really important that we get claw back or funding for rural schools,” Hopson said.
