<p>Edgartown selectmen Monday asked school officials to put the brakes on a proposal to change the way school choice funds are allocated through the superintendent’s shared services budget.</p>
Edgartown selectmen Monday asked school officials to put the brakes on a proposal to change the way towns are assessed for the superintendent’s shared services budget.
The up-Island regional school committee wants to change the formula used to assess each town’s elementary school share of the budget, which pays for a variety of services throughout the public schools.
Elementary schools pay for 80 per cent of the superintendent’s budget, while the high school pays 20 per cent. Currently, elementary assessments are based on enrollment. But historically more students have opted to attend the up Island schools through the school choice program than vice versa, which leaves the up-Island district paying a higher portion of the so-called shared services budget. Feeling an unfair cost burden, the up-Island school committee wants school choice students to be counted toward their residential town’s assessment, instead of the school they are attending.
The proposal to reallocate school choice money would result in assessments going up for Tisbury and Edgartown next year, while up-Island assessments would go down and Oak Bluffs would stay about the same. The West Tisbury selectmen and town finance committee are backing the proposed change.
Vineyard schools superintendent Matthew D’Andrea attended the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting Monday to discuss the issue.
“The students in the school choice program are assessed in the district of the school they attend,” Mr. D’Andrea explained. “They [up-Island school district representatives] would like to consider assessing them in the district where they live.”
The proposal is slated for more discussion and a possible decision at an all-Island school committee meeting on Jan. 13.
Selectmen questioned both the wisdom and the legality of the idea.
Arthur Smadbeck said state law calls for a representative committee to make budget decisions, and a written agreement on the assessment formula.
“As it stands now, we’re not in compliance with that law,” Mr. Smadbeck said. “That needs to be looked at, addressed.”
Mr. D’Andrea, who is in his first year as the Island’s top school official, said he has been unable to find any previous written agreement for assessments.
Selectman Margaret Serpa urged more analysis before any decisions are made.
“It sounds like they want a decision on that day,” Mrs. Serpa said, referring to the Jan. 13 meeting. “I think that’s premature. I think it needs more discussion.”
Currently, each town votes approval of the superintendent’s shared services budget. Mrs. Serpa said the all-Island school committee has no authority to change the formula.
Susan Mercier, chairman of the Edgartown school committee, also advocated more discussion.
“I think there was a tremendous amount of urgency,” Mrs. Mercier said, referring to a debate at a previous all-Island school committee meeting. “The suggestion I made is we take a lot of time. Even more questions have come up.”
Also Monday, selectmen voted to apply for another Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). Melissa Vincent, who has administered the federal grants for home repairs and child care subsidies, said the program has been successful in previous years.
“We’re nearing completion of the fiscal year 2014 CDBG grant,” Ms. Vincent said. “We have served 16 households. Of those, 14 were Edgartown households. There were 29 people living within those homes.”
She said the grants provided child care subsidies for 44 children so their parents could work, or look for work.
The fiscal year 2015 grants are slated to help 17 households with home repairs, and 48 children with day care subsidies.
Edgartown serves as the lead town in the grant for fiscal year 2016; towns apply together to save on administrative costs and increase their competitiveness. The grant will also be available to residents of West Tisbury, Aquinnah, and Gosnold.
Comments
I don't know who writes your
Bruce Stone EdgartownI don't know who writes your headlines. The article correctly states that the issue is how to allocate the Superintendent and Shared Services budgets to the individual school districts. It has nothing to do with changing how school choice funds are distributed which is a process that is carried out by the state according to state law.
When a student opts into
Michael Marcus West TisburyWhen a student opts into School Choice the Sending Town pays a $5000 Stipend to the Receiving Town. The Sending Town continues to maintain that student on their ‘head count’ for their Foundation Enrollment and consequently receives Chapter 70 funding for that student, currently $1569 in Tisbury, $1481 in Edgartown, $2041 in Oak Bluffs, $2251 Up Island, and $3801 at MVRHS. Chapter 70 funding for each Island town varies due to the MA State formula based on specific economic criteria for each Town.
The Receiving Town under the current Shared Services policy is responsible for the cost of each student enrolled in their School. Shared Services administered through the Superintendent’s office is predominantly for Special Education services and programs. The current cost of Shared Services for the K-8 students Island Wide is approximately $3200 per Student. Without knowing the specific start date or structure of this Policy going back perhaps more than 15 years, I assume at the time that the Shared Services costs per student were significantly lower. The $5000 Stipend amount has not changed since the State instituted the School Choice policy many years ago.
This topic has come up numerous times over the past 8 years at the All Island School Committee, and discussed even more frequently at Up Island School Committee meetings. Over the past 10 years the Up Island Region has received many more students than it has sent under the School Choice program…paying upwards of $600,000 in Shared Services costs for School Choice. The initial belief that it would ‘balance out over time’ is just not proving to be the case over the past 10 years data.
I like the School Choice program and what it offers the students and families on the Island and would like it to continue to be a robust program without constraint.
Throughout the rest of the State the policy for Special Ed is that the cost is borne by the Town of residence. For example, in Residential Placement situations for students with those needs, the cost is borne by the Town of residence aided with Circuit Breaker funds. Similarly, where Towns form Special Ed Collaboratives for Administering Shared Services for their students, like on the Cape, those costs are borne by the Town of residence of the attending student.
In the current year the Up Island Region will pay approximately $160,000 in Shared Services costs for School Choice students from down Island Towns. I hope that instead of maintaining a policy where we hope it balances out over time that we can agree that the costs of Shared Services should be borne by the Town of residence of the student.
Michael Marcus, West Tisbury Resident and Up Island and All Island School Committee Member
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