Special Ed. Costs to soar in 1998-99 school year
Published on May 13th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - This is the first of a three part series on the rising cost of public education in Stoneham.
The School Department is up against the wall right now, trying to decide what programs will have to be cut in order to meet with state and contractual guidelines which have built over the past three years and have pushed the budget up to nearly $17 million.
In order to meet these financial and educational requirements, the School Committee must bring the budget down from $17.4 million to $16.7 million in order to come in line with the Annual Town Meeting appropriation.
One of the key factors in this number-crunching process is special education which has increased which is projected to increase by over $500,000 in the upcoming school year.
According to Frank Gagliardi, Stoneham Schools' Director of Special Education, the increase is not an area of great speculation.
"We don't have a choice and I don't have control," Gagliardi told the Stoneham Independent. The teams in the schools make the decisions about where placement should take place. The director's (and the School Department's) job is to provide that education.
"That means that I don't have a choice, but I have to provide funding."
The problem which arose in the Fiscal Year 1999 budget was that there was a large increase in out-of-district placements. These students have been reviewed by specialists which have found that highly specialized education is required. In order to provide that education, the students must be brought to other schools to receive that education. The expense for the transportation and education of those students falls on the shoulders of the School Department because of the Entitlement Law.
"It's gotten to the point where we can't do everything without more funding," Gagliardi said. "(Parents) have the law on their side. I don't think they take advantage of the system, but they utilize the law that they have.
"I think they utilize the law to the benefit of their child."
According to Gagliardi, however, this law does not benefit the schools in area towns.
"The formula for (state) funding has to be reevaluated and the large cities have to pay their share," he said. "(The state) should be funding at least 50 percent of everybody's budget, especially if they mandate these things."
Gagliardi explained Chapter 766 was passed in 1989 and, as part of that bill, the state agreed to up funding in education. Unfortunately, the formula which was adopted does not work in favor of towns like Stoneham.
The state is expected to appropriate approximately $1.8 million to the Town of Stoneham's $16.7 million School Department budget for the next school year, or about 11 percent.
In comparison, the City of Lawrence will spend approximately $89 million on its public education system next year. The full $89 million will be payed for by the state. Similar funding can be found in Boston, Lowell and Worcester.
"I'd just like to see us get treated equally," Gagliardi said. "The town does a good job, but we're just not getting funded enough in regular or special education. They need to start looking at these things in the legislature."
Acting Superintendent Robert Barbarisi agreed, saying, "The big problem is that there are a lot of very expensive programs for special education that, at one time, the state paid for directly. Now, these kids are under the supervision of public schools."
Another problem which has arisen in recent years is the state's requirement that communities provide the "maximum feasible" education for special needs students while the federal standard of "appropriate public education" has been endorsed by most of the other states.
If the state standard were to be changed to come in line with the federal standard, Gagliardi said, costs may not decrease greatly, but "I think it would slow down the increase to the budget."
"(The standard) presents a number of problems. We're trying to provide the maximum service because that's the legal mandate, in the least restrictive setting. The problem is that you can't do it all," he explained.
The state had promised towns in the early 1980's that education would be funded out of its purse to the tune of 110 percent.
"They told us to spend on what we wanted," Gagliardi said. "If everything was funded like it was supposed to be, nothing would be taken away."
As it stands, the School Committee is set to meet Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 pm in the High School Library to discuss and decide on how approximately $700,000 can be cut from its budget.
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