NORTHAMPTON – Members of the Gateway Towns Advisory Committee (GTAC) attended a hearing held Saturday by the Massachusetts state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education’s Foundation Budget Review Committee at Northampton High School to discuss funding for the upcoming year.
The Commonwealth’s “Foundation Budget” formula dictates each town and city’s annual share of public school costs and, at the conclusion of the six-hearing series, a recommendation will be issued by the end of June. The state created the Foundation Budget Review Committee last year to review to make recommendations for possible changes in process.
Derrick Mason, GTAC co-moderator, said today that the meeting went well and that there were 50 to 60 people who presented to the joint committee, in addition to the 100 others in attendance.
“Alice Peisch, the co-chair for the committee, said it was the ‘best of their six sessions’ and that it was a diverse group of presenters,” said Mason. “We had one student present, as well as myself, Darlene McVeigh (GTAC co-moderator) and Ruth Kennedy (Gateway School Committee). I felt we all did a pretty good job explaining our needs to the committee. They really got an earful.”
Mason said that, while there wasn’t anyone from Westfield, larger communities such as Holyoke and Springfield were out in full force pleading their case to the legislators on the committee.
“We discussed issues such as funding for special education and other various funding inadequacies,” said Mason. “The foundation funding for the state budget is never adequate to address our needs. Nobody who spoke seemed happy with the budget.”
“Hopefully, they (legislators) came away inspired,” he said. “They are good people who want to do the right thing.”
GTAC will also be holding a meeting of their own this coming Saturday at Stanton Hall in Huntington, with topics such the current school budget crisis, the Gateway Regional School District’s budget for FY 2016, the state’s Foundation Formula, local aid and recent budget cuts, the status of Worthington’s withdrawal, Wired West development, and GTAC priorities for the next few months.
“We’re not very encouraged about what the state seems ready to do regarding Worthington,” said Mason. “The district learned Saturday that it is facing a budget shortfall and we’re going to be looking to our legislators to find funding help to get the sustainability of the district back.”
GTAC member Dan Jacques stated that next Saturday’s meeting will help address a “perfect storm” of issues facing the district at the moment.
“The state’s policies show a lack of commitment to the state’s rural districts and their students,” he said. “Towns are stuck raising property taxes, which puts residents at odds with the districts.”
“District budgets haven’t been going up – Gateway’s has only increased by two or three percent – but it’s due to reductions at the state level,” said Jacques, who added that he is unaware if any of the district’s legislators will be in attendance on Saturday.
