Amid Standoff Over Funding Formula, High School Mulls Mediation

Noah Asimow Wednesday, October 9 2019 - 6:26am

<p>With growing discord over the regional high school funding formula, district school committee members agreed Monday that mediation may be the only option.

With growing discord over the regional high school funding formula, district school committee members agreed Monday that mediation may be the only option in a process that has become increasingly complicated and controversial.

After peppering educational consultants with questions for over an hour at a school committee meeting Monday night, board members voted to send school superintendent Matthew D’Andrea to the six Island towns to ask selectmen to come back to the negotiating table.

“We need to get everybody in the same room and talking,” committee member Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd said.

Oak Bluffs town and school leaders want to change the school funding formula from a per-pupil basis to an equalized evaluation mechanism that takes into account property values within individual towns. A new formula would lower the required contribution for Oak Bluffs, but the idea has been vigorously opposed by elected officials in both Chilmark and Edgartown, where high school assessments would go up sharply under the proposed change.

On Monday Mr. D’Andrea organized a presentation from MARS, an educational consulting group started by five former school superintendents. Consultants outlined the process for amending the agreement if they are hired, which would involve making the agreement legal, compliant with the state Department of Education and fit to the specific needs of the Island.

Consultants said hammering out the assessment issue would be the number one priority, although they also noted there are other noncompliant aspects of the regional agreement that date to 1989.

“We understand that there is an issue here with your assessment and we believe that is the piece of this that needs to be addressed first,” consultant Malcolm Reed said. “We do believe that some professional mediation would be helpful to bring all the parties together at the beginning to look at the assessment process.”

When the consultants finished the presentation, hands shot in the air from members of Island finance committees present at the meeting. Vicky Divoll, chairman of the Chilmark finance committee, said she came to the meeting to relay a message from her town’s selectmen: that they would not participate in the process to change the formula.

“Are you aware of the thorniness [of the situation]?” Ms. Divoll asked the consultants. “Everyone in this room should know that Chilmark selectmen have voted unanimously that they are not going to recommend or act on changing the formula at all, and that they are not open to mediating that issue. We are not going to be part of the conversation.”

Ms. Divoll then left the meeting.

Members of the Oak Bluffs finance committee asked the consultants whether their process for amending the agreement would take into account a town’s “ability to pay” and whether their method would use the equalized valuation formula.

Mr. Reed said he had worked on a regional agreement in Berkshire Hills, a western Massachusetts community with similarities to the Vineyard, in which the operational budget ultimately remained enrollment based, but that capital projects were funded using the equalized valuation formula.

In the end school committee members agreed that little could be done unless the towns agree to work with a mediator. They agreed to take up the question at a meeting of the all-Island school committee in two weeks.

“I’m going to reach out to some mediators and see what it will cost,” Mr. D’Andrea said.

Doug Ruskin, member of the West Tisbury finance committee, agreed that was a good idea considering the animosity among towns.

“This is a relationship issue,” Mr. Ruskin said. “We need a marriage counselor.”

“Or a divorce lawyer,” another finance committee member said.

Comments

This is a relationship issue

Bob Edgartown

This is a relationship issue is correct. Towns should pay per pupil cost and the bigger issue is how did it get to $30,000 a year to send a child to high school. There must be plenty of fat to cut up there and that would be a better use of consultation.

Berkshire Hills (Great

Edgartownite Edgartown

Berkshire Hills (Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge towns that derive a great deal of their income from tourism) spends less than $20,000 per child per year. MV is over $30,000 per student per year. That's a difference of over 50%. Their schools are also more highly rated than MVRHS. Perhaps the answer is in fixing the spending problem before attempting to increase taxes.

Closer to home we sometimes

Bob Edgartown

Closer to home we sometimes are compared to Nantucket as there are some similar issues we both face. The student cost on Nantucket is $21,000 which is still about a 30% difference. Costs in general for most everything is higher on our sister island but for some reason we are 30% more on Education.

Perhaps the higher costs for

MVWE MV

Perhaps the higher costs for educating a student on the Island are related to all costs, housing, food, gas, etc., being significantly higher here than in western MA?

Refusing to listen, making a

Downislander

Refusing to listen, making a proclamation that they wont participate in talks, then getting up and leaving. Way to behave like an adult Chilmark.

If Chilmark/Up Island won't

Tiskid VH

If Chilmark/Up Island won't even show up or discuss the possibility of mediation then their kids shouldn't be allowed to go to the High School. They can homeschool, go off island, or go to their own town's school. A divorce lawyer may very well be needed here.

Fail to understand how an

Mark Edgartown

Fail to understand how an allocation of costs by number of students utilizing the school is not equitable. Tying contributions to property values and other variables using a weighted formula only invites confusion and seems arbitrary in how they are allocated. Keep as is, which is simple and transparent. Agree with the other comments, let's better understand the bloated $30k figure. Can't for the life of me understand why this number is the equivalent of private / boarding school tuition.

The voters of Oak Bluffs are

Name Location

The voters of Oak Bluffs are thrifty and after decades of disadvantage sometimes cheap. But they didn’t blink an eye when it came to paying seven million bucks to fix up their school. It isn’t in their character to short change kids. So why are they playing hardball on the high school? Because they have been ripped off for decades by the “formula” that was made in good faith and exploited by Chilmark and Edgartown. It sucks they had to do this, but we are back in the late 1980’s in terms of unfathomable greed. Chilmark now is what all Island towns will become. And it is most definitely an affront to Island values. A handful of families in Chilmark hang on while the vast majority is bought up by hedge fund tycoons and fast operators. The real Chilmark people, those that are “here in February” are a rapidly diminishing population. As a down islander, I don’t want to see them taxed out of house and home, only to be replaced by another “master of the universe” here six weeks gone the rest. The solution is two fold. Immediately adopt the perfectly legal residential exemption that will cut property taxes by half for the few residents left. Nantucket did it. You don’t need to apologize. Then vote to rework the high school funding formula. Your taxes will go down, you won’t be seen as sellouts to your media mogul neighbors (who don’t invite you to their homes for their parties) and your kids will get a better education. As for the ridiculously rich power players up there in Chilmark, why the hell should we down island be paying to educate kids whose parents run up there every time a lawn needs mowing, a party needs catering, a house needs painting, a deck needs repairing, or a mansion needs to be built. The workers come from far away. They pack into houses in our towns. They do it so they can send their kids to school in America and right here on MV where gang violence isn’t a threat. Yet every morning these workers who sacrifice for their families awake in OB or VH and their kids go to school there at 20 to 30 grand a piece a year, and they drive up island so your hedges are trimmed for the next important business deal. I will gladly pay for a kid’s education, but as a community, I would feel better if you didn’t duck your share

Nobody is being taxed out of

Mark Edgartown

Nobody is being taxed out of house and home. MV enjoys some of the lowest tax rates in MA and the country. You know why? The seasonal homeowners you are demonizing that pay a full and fair share of taxes but use a fraction of the services they fund. Don't rebut with a "they choose to own a seasonal home here" response because just like them you choose to live on MV as well.

I propose a breakup of the

William Edg.

I propose a breakup of the regional school system. Now would be an excellent time since they are talking about rebuilding the high school.

Edgartown should lead the way and propose a high school near the airport and then invite towns such as West Tisbury, Chilmark and any other town that wants to partake on cost per student basis split. The other towns can can have their own high school on the wealth based formula.

As a tax payer, I see no reason to pay more per student for one town than another town if students are getting the same education. Why would anyone agree to that? This is just Oak Bluffs trying to scam money from other towns to pay for their students. NOPE!

No need for mediation, just don't go since all it can do is cost taxpayers more for those against wealth based split.

Stay strong Edgartown and Chilmark.

I sincerely hope that Edgartown and Chilmark stick to their guns and do not give in to Oak Bluffs. I would rather pay more to an Edgartown High than give in to a wealth based formula.