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Dr. David Hopson |
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March 5 , 2007 Gateway hosted a meeting between our state legislators and local officials on March 1st to review budgetary issues facing the schools and towns. I wish to publicly thank Representative Kulik, Representative Kocot, and Senator Knapik for taking the time out of their busy schedules to participate in this meeting. I also appreciate the elected officials from Worthington and Huntington who attended the meeting and helped express the difficult financial times that our towns are experiencing. As we all now recognize, the House One (or Governor’s) budget didn’t significantly help the Gateway District or its member towns. While the Governor increased Chapter 70 aid by nearly $200 million, the increase seems to be dispersed unequally across the state if one looks simply at enrollment, hold harmless, and total payments. Needless to say, the increase in state aid does not trickle down to Gateway under its current proposal. In addition, the Governor level-funded regional transportation which, by the State’s reckoning, means that Gateway faces a loss of regional school transportation reimbursement of $88,000. In short, if the Governor’s budget were adopted as presented we would be in dire fiscal straights. Our legislators indicated that they would continue to work towards fully funding regional transportation reimbursement (which would yield nearly $300,000 for Gateway) as well as increasing overall aid to schools under Chapter 70. They were candid in saying that major changes to the formula would not be occurring this year, leaving those rural school districts with declining enrollments in a difficult situation. There are currently two proposals being shared with the state—a Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools declining enrollment circuit breaker and a Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents proposal for additional aid to small schools. While the declining enrollment proposal would be most beneficial to Gateway, either proposal would mean additional funding in these difficult times. As originally submitted, these proposals would each cost just over $10 million to fully fund. We will continue to work with our legislators, pay close attention to the budget process on Beacon Hill, and advocate for our students and towns because we will be faced with some very difficult choices if the state does not find a way to increase educational or transportation aid to the district this year. As I do every year, I urge all community members to continue to follow the budget process (state, town, and school) in order to be fully informed when the time comes to make decisions regarding our future. ### |
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