Gardner School District Looking at State Funding Formula

Gardner School District Looking at State Funding Formula

Katie Landeck
News Staff Writer

GARDNER Like many city school systems, Gardner funds its schools as close as it can to the minimum required by state law. However, officials say it’s starting to not be enough.

“We are grabbing every dime we can possibly get from the city,” said school business manager Christopher Casavant. “The problem is that it’s becoming not enough money pretty quickly.”

At Monday’s School Committee meeting, Mr. Casavant gave a presentation about the Chapter 70 formula the state uses to calculate a “foundation budget,” which is the total money the state and a municipality contribute to a district’s budget.

In fiscal 2016, Gardner’s foundation budget is estimated at $27 million, according to cherry sheet figures, with $19 million coming from the state and $8 million coming from the city.

The Chapter 70 formula is “dense, really dense,” according to Mr. Casavant, and is starting to be questioned.

“The formula is used for every district in the state and is not meeting the need,” Mr. Casavant said, who called studying it his summer homework. “It’s not representative of almost any community.”

Urban districts, particularly poorer ones, appear to be particularly hit hard.

The average school district in the state is funded at 119 percent of net school spending, according to state records. However, poor cities are often under that, such as Brockton at 98.8 percent, Springfield at 100 percent, Fitchburg at 100.2 percent, Leominster at 101.4 percent, and Gardner projected at 103.5 percent for fiscal 2016.

Brockton has become a leader against what its officials call the “assault” on urban schools, and its superintendent and city council are discussing an equity lawsuit against the state over Chapter 70. Brockton is at risk of laying off 125 teachers, which makes its situation more dire than most of the state.

Others have also complained, and the formula is currently under review by the Legislature, according to state Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner, who said a Foundation Budget Review Committee was created last year to address complaints.

Changing the formula, however, will take time. And right now, “there’s an inequity,” said Mayor Mark Hawke. “You should not suffer a better or worse education based on your geography, but that’s what we have.”

In Gardner, there are indicators its academics are moving forward. For example, there was an 80 percent jump in the number of students taking Advanced Placement tests at Gardner High School this year.

But the condition of its school buildings is the area where Gardner lags, Mr. Casavant said.

“We have kids in buildings over 100 years old,” he said. He also noted that part of the district’s reorganization plan involves students moving to a building just shy of 100 years old.

The city’s budget, though, according to Mr. Hawke, doesn’t have the capacity to find more money for the schools.

“Every dime is accounted for,” he said.

The schools need reoccurring money, he said, so it doesn’t make sense to not buy a piece of equipment for the Department of Public Works, to give a lump sum of money one year that won’t be there the next.

When faced with this problem last year, Winchendon passed an $300,000 override to be used for the school budget each year beyond net school spending. The year before that, Narragansett sought an override for an additional $600,000 beyond net school spending.

Even so, Narragansett faced a half-million dollar shortfall this year as rising fixed costs, such as health insurance, outstripped increases to its two member towns’ minimum contributions.  

Mr. Hawke said Gardner has never passed an override or debt exclusion, but he would not be opposed to one.

“As a conservative, low-tax Republican, if I knew what it would be used for, I could support it,” he said. “I recognize there is a connection between the educational system and economic development, the value of homes and the general prosperity of the community.”

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School finance commission outlines early recommendations

May 26, 2015

The special commission charged with reviewing the basic spending standard portion of the Chapter 70 school finance law has taken a first look at two substantial changes that could add more than $1.5 billion to the total statewide minimum school spending standard, which this year is $9.87 billion.

At its May 5 meeting, the Foundation Budget Review Commission focused on two areas in the foundation budget – employee benefits and special education – where analyses done by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and others has shown that the two factors, included in the 1993 education reform law, now significantly understate actual costs at the local level.

A proposal by DESE staff to update these two factors would add an additional $1.5 billion to the statewide foundation budget and would result in $900 million in new school aid and nearly $100 million in additional required local contributions. Given the impact of the update, it is expected that new local contribution and aid amounts would be phased in.

The employee benefits proposal would adjust the foundation employee benefits rate to reflect the average rate paid by the state’s Group Insurance Commission, which provides health insurance to state and some municipal employees. This change would add an estimated $684 million to the statewide foundation budget.

The special education proposal would change the rates for both in-district special education and out-of-district placements to better reflect current costs. These changes would add $826 million to the foundation budget.

On May 5, the Foundation Budget Review Commission did not take a formal vote on any recommendations. It has scheduled meetings on June 9 and 23, with a vote expected at the latter meeting.

The commission did vote to continue working on other aspects of the foundation budget beyond the June reporting deadline and to seek an extension for this work until Nov. 1.

The commission, established in the fiscal 2015 state budget act, is charged with reviewing parts of Chapter 70 school finance law, with a focus on how the “foundation” spending standard is calculated.

The commission, composed of 21 voting members, is co-chaired by Rep. Alice Peisch and Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, the House and Senate chairs of the Legislature’s Committee on Education. There is also a six-member non-voting advisory committee.

The commission includes eight legislators and four members of the Executive Branch. There are nine members representing other public education stakeholders, including Attleboro Mayor Kevin Dumas, who represents the MMA.

Written by MMA Legislative Director John Robertson