Schools look at 70K deficit
Published on September 20th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - Imagine running a business, jacking up your prices by 50%, and giving your customers no choice but to pay the increases. Sounds too good to be true, but not for the state of Massachusetts.
The Bay State has long been handing down mandates to cities and towns for public education and the most expensive of those have been in the area of special education. But struggling towns do not have the luxury of shopping for better prices. The extent to which federal and state special education mandates hurt local budgets such as Stoneham's, while the communities struggle to provide services to deserving students, was outlined by Special Education Director Kathleen Curtis last week.
Appearing before the School Committee on Tuesday, Curtis elaborated on the projected deficit in the fiscal year 2007 budget and cited special education tuition rates as a huge culprit.
"At present, the Stoneham Public Schools are supporting 55 students in out-of-district placements, 24 of which are in private special education schools and 31 in collaborative programs," Curtis said.
Private special education schools appear before state rate-setting boards where tuition rates are determined. This year, some of those schools serving Stoneham special education students received approval for large tuition increases (which the town is responsible for paying).
In one case, a private school requested and received from the Massachusetts Department of Education a $75,000 increase in tuition charges for the current year. In another case, a student was moved from one private school setting to another to accommodate his/her needs. The original budgeted figure for the first school was $26,270. The school to which he/she moved had a significantly higher tuition rate of $46,792. That school, however, recently filed for program reconstruction through the state. The Massachusetts DOE approved the request and the school was able to bump its tuition for the current year to $53,237. The resulting, overall, unanticipated impact to Stoneham's budget is an additional $27,107. These are just two examples of how and why Stoneham's special education budget is as large as it is and currently running a deficit.
"It's shocking but it's happening year after year and year," Superintendent Joseph Connelly said. "These private schools have the ability to pass that (increase) on to sending communities."
"It's just astounding to me that the state would allow somebody to go up 50 percent," School Committee member Marie Christie agreed, calling the increase "exorbitant."
While the numbers are staggering, Curtis reassured that the majority of Stoneham special education students, about 90 percent, are service by Stoneham's in-house special education department. In larger districts, such as Lynn and Somerville, Curtis explained, the population of special education students is large enough to warrant more in house programs and avoid many of these out-of-district placements. But a community the size of Stoneham does not have the numbers to justify creation of some of the intensive programs provided by these private schools.
With regard to special education transportation costs, any increases over budgeted figures will not be known, Curtis said, until the invoices start rolling in.
"Transportation in some cases, can be almost as much as tuition," she warned.
"We are not unique here in experiencing this. A number of other districts are unlucky in the way we are," Connelly said, but assured the board that the numbers are being tracked very closely on a daily basis by Curtis and her staff.
All of this contributes in large part to the projected year end deficit of $67,2423 as presented by Business Manager Greg Zammuto. However, Zammuto cautioned that this September projection of the fiscal 2007 year-end balance is only the first of many updated throughout the year.
In other news, the School Committee is preparing a warrant article for the October 23 Town Meeting for capital repairs. There are many capital needs in the Middle School and high school, and Connelly suggested putting a moratorium on the roof replacement program for one year in order to address of these issues.
The School Department is currently on a 10-year program for replacing and repairing the roofs at the high school and Middle School with funds appropriated by Town Meeting. However, since the most dire areas of the roofs have been addressed with no active leaks presently, Connelly suggested using the $22,000 appropriation for this year for other serious needs. That list of needs is long and includes repair, replacement, or updating of Middle School bathrooms, Middle School windows, Middle School auditorium seats and lighting, high school and Middle school lockers, the high school clock system, high school main electrical board, as well as purchase of pick up truck with plow.
Finally, Connelly reported a successful school opening for the 2006-07 school year, with building interiors and school supplies in great shape, and just two positions still vacant (speech and alternate education positions).
"It's been a good, smooth school opening and we're off to a good start."
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