Stoneham examines State aid formula for vocational education
Published on April 19th, 2000
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham taxpayers are shouldering an uneven burden of the cost to run the Northeast Regional Metropolitan Vocational High School.
Officials from the school and town blame the state formulas used to calculate education funding.
"We're really getting slammed by the (Department of Education) formulas," said Stoneham Finance and Advisory Board member John Warren. "All the communities in the district have to get together to work this out."
Northeast is located on Hemlock Road in Wakefield and offers a public vocational education to students from 12 communities: Chelsea, Malden, Melrose, North Reading, Reading, Revere, Saugus, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winthrop and Woburn.
If eight out of 12 communities in the district ratify the fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) 2001 budget of $13,695,509, Stoneham will have to contribute $298,556. This is a $98,114 increase from fiscal year 2000. Draft 1 of the town Budget had predicted a $23,887 increase.
"The number of kids going to the school influences the funding level, and we don't know how many kids are coming from each community," Warren said. "It's totally unpredictable."
Northeast Superintendent-Director James Pelley said the state funding process should be reviewed.
"People are going to blame us for these increases," Pelley said.
The Northeast Vocational School Committee OKed the budget on April 13. The budget is part of Article 7 on the May 1 Annual Town Meeting Warrant.
Each community has a School Committee representative. The committee voted 10-1 to pass the budget. The Reading member was absent, and the Revere member opposed the budget. The rest, including Stoneham member Anthony DeTeso, voted to approve the budget.
"The normal increases in salaries and the need for textbooks only increased Stoneham's share of the budget $15,000, which is less than the town expected," DeTeso said. "I think it is a good budget."
If the state minimum contribution level had not jumped so radically, Stoneham would have owed less than town officials budgeted. Of the $98,114 jump, $85,000 was a state mandate which Northeast could not alter.
"It's not the role of the school committee to change these formulas or the school administration," Warren said. "They have to make sure the school is run well and the students get what they need to get a good education."
The overall budget increased five percent from fiscal 2000.
Stoneham Superintendent of Schools Joseph Connelly called the five- percent increase of the public schools budget to $18,650,000 "very modest."
But even though the Northeast budget increase is fiscally conservative, the distribution of the burden appears uneven.
The state has decided that $11,000 per pupil is necessary to provide adequate vocational education. Stoneham public schools spend $6,695, but vocational schools employ costly supplies and equipment, from band saws to egg batter.
Of the $11,000 spent on every pupil this past fiscal year, the town of Winthrop (27 pupils) contributes $1,850 for each Winthrop citizen sent to Northeast, whereas Woburn (144 pupils) must pay $8,633 for each student it sends.
Stoneham (43 pupils) pays more than $6,000 while both Melrose (30 pupils) and Reading (23 pupils) pay closer to $5,000, and Wakefield (55 pupils) pays almost $8,000.
"There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the state formula," Pelley said. "Of the $298,114, $270,874 is the state's minimum contribution requirement."
So how did this happen?
To determine what state aid a community will receive the state first uses thousands of formulas as detailed as how many custodians would be necessary for how many hours for children of what age in schools of what size.
This phase of calculations determines what a school system needs, according to the state. The dollar value of this need is called the "foundation budget."
Then the state determines the ability of the community to meet the budget by basically taking the value of all property in town divided by the number of students and multiplied by per capita income. Other factors such as the grade level of students are considered, making these calculations a little more complicated. This figure is the "local contribution."
There is a gap between the foundation budget and the local contribution; state aid fills the gap.
"Basically it works," Warren said.
But during the debate over passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, the State Legislature agreed to something that predetermined inequity: The base level of state funding was set at the funding received in the previous year.
Thus, an arbitrary figure became the starting point for a meticulously conceived series of algorithms.
"The result is that if you were behind in funding then, you never catch up," Warren said.
Stoneham is in that situation. Public School Committee members have said Stoneham schools are paying now for being in relatively good financial shape in the early 1990s. (Stoneham handled its affairs without the large state bailouts other communities depended upon during the early 1990s recession.)
In funding Northeast Stoneham gets burned three ways:
One, Stoneham has to contribute to funding a high foundation budget. Two, Stoneham has to "pick of the slack," as Warren said, for communities that have a lower local contribution requirement. And three, Stoneham is not getting as much aid as other communities who happened to ask for more money before the Education Reform Act.
What now?
State Senator Richard Tisei (R-3rd Middlesex District) said he is investigating solutions for the long and short terms.
Tisei said no changes will be made in the formula for the state's fiscal year (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) 2001.
"I am looking now to see how I can help Stoneham with Chapter 70 (state educational) funding as part of this budget," Tisei said.
The formula was due for review in 2000, but struggles with the Big Dig have slowed everything down, Tisei said.
At a previous meeting of the Stoneham School Committee Tisei asked officials to get in touch with other communities adversely affected by the Education Reform formula. He mentioned the Suburban Coalition.
Warren has suggested a meeting of the finance boards of the Northeast district communities.
Communication and cooperation could radically change how education is funded in Massachusetts and what Stoneham folks are asked to pay, but not before 2002.
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