Gateway Regional School District Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson.
I find the range of opinions expressed by our citizens, town officials, and district employees to be diverse, often contradictory, sometimes based upon limited knowledge, but always interesting to hear and read. As a recent example we have Russell officials recommending that the district budget be turned down due to the high cost to Russell (without explaining that they are the only town to have actually seen both an increase in their percentage of students as well as actual numbers of students in the district) while a town official in Huntington indicated that the cost wasn’t the problem, rather there are structural deficiencies in the district that led to a recommendation to vote down the budget. At the same time, we read an editorial in the Country Journal pointing out that both Russell and Huntington are paying far less per student than they would be under the original regional agreement, which split all educational costs by student population rather than the current method set by the state. Interestingly enough, it appears that our local opinions generally agree that much of the problem arises from the state, which also aligns with state officials acknowledging that the Chapter 70 formula substantially underfunds schools, that the regional school reimbursement for transportation is a serious issue, and that there are many regulations that make it difficult for schools and towns to be innovative.
Locally we are all trying to be better informed of the budgeting process and education issues through a joint budgeting effort between the district and town officials and through a set of discussions facilitated by the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools. While the outcome of these efforts remains to be seen, at the very least we have groups of people exchanging ideas, concerns, and potential solutions with each other. As we publish the findings and minutes of these meetings I hope that parents and community members will keep abreast of what’s happening and begin to share some of their concerns. To help with that process I remind people that there is an email address to share your opinions with the district: ‘[email protected]’.
On a regional level, Gateway is one of many small and rural schools working as a coalition to educate state officials of the plight that many school districts in Massachusetts are facing due to decreases in student population, a funding formula based upon much larger-scale districts, and expectations that require greater staffing than would normally be found in a smaller district. This of course can also be expanded to include similar issues that face many of our smaller towns throughout the Commonwealth that must operate under the same set of rules and regulations as do the largest cities in the state, despite the fact that many of our town officials are, for all practical purposes, volunteering many hours of their time and fulfill a multitude of duties within these towns.
I believe we know that many of the driving factors are cyclical, i.e., populations in our towns have ebbed and flowed over time, the economy expands and contracts, and percentages of population age groups vary over both time and location. Despite this we must continue on, knowing that the one additional thing that seems to be unavoidable (in addition to death and taxes) is that government seems to expand consistently and with this expansion comes additional rules, recommendations, regulations and laws that often seem petty, time consuming, costly, and too broad-based to be effective under all conditions. At least we retain the right to speak our minds, share our opinions, and participate in local governance to help make a difference in our own communities that hopefully will improve our lives over time.
