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Dr. David Hopson |
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June 15 , 2007 It is a relief to have the 2007-2008 school year budget ratified by the district towns, but the process of preparing for the 2008-2009 budget must begin now. By passing the budget, the member towns have agreed to keep five elementary schools open, meet the educational requirements of our children, and support what is essentially a level-service budget. I understand that this was a difficult choice for our towns to make because many had to use free cash and reserve funds to make ends meet and that this is a practice that can’t continue indefinitely. The facts are simple and straightforward—over the past several years, the school district has increased the bottom line of its budget by the same amount as our seven towns have. As we’re all aware, these increases will continue for both the schools and towns unless major cutbacks in services occur because the cost of doing business continues to rise every year. While both the towns and schools continue to control costs to the degree that they can, many cost factors (insurance, utilities, labor, insurance, etc.) are out of our control. Even wages, thought to be controlled locally, are in actuality driven by state, regional, and national trends; for example, if we didn’t provide any raises for a very short period of time while other schools continued to increase wages, we’d lose staff to other districts and be unable to hire new, highly qualified staff members. These problems are exacerbated between the school district and the towns because our revenue sources are so dependent on state aid to education. As costs go up, and state revenue stays the same or decreases, the impact on towns increases much more than the actual budget increase (i.e., this year’s 5.1% budget increase yielded an average town assessment increase of almost 15%). I don’t disagree that we need to continuously look at how we operate and what makes the most sense for everyone concerning our elementary schools. But I also believe that we must make the state see the need to provide additional funding for the unique needs of small, rural school districts who are experiencing declining enrollment, just as they provide additional funding for urban schools who are experiencing increasing enrollment and face other unique challenges. There are two proposals that were developed this year to address the issues of small schools and rural schools (which are not always synonymous). The Friends of Gateway will be working with local community members, and other districts, to target informational mailings and letters of concern to state legislators and Governor Patrick concerning the small schools and rural schools proposals, increasing regional school transportation, and the fiscal burden that a lack of state aid to education has placed upon local communities. I would urge everyone that is interested in education and the fairness of education funding to get involved in this educational advocacy and informational campaign. You can start by emailing Friendsofgateway@hughes.net . As one parent pointed out, if state educational aid to Gateway had increased by just 3% per year, instead of decreasing from $4,272 to $4,128 per student over the past five years, we would not be facing our current fiscal dilemma. I do thank all of those who worked so diligently throughout the budgetary process, and all of those who were able to support the budget at town meetings, for their help in ensuring that we are able to continue educating children without a major upheaval in operations. I understand these are difficult times and hope everyone will join in ensuring that state support of education becomes adequate for small, rural school districts. ### |
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