Teachers and services hang in the balance

This week, the finance and advisory committees of Hamilton and Wenham will meet jointly to discuss school funding for next year. The fincoms have not heard much from parents yet this year, and they are facing tough decisions.

Can you send an email to the fincoms today and urge them to recommend a Fair Share appropriation for the school district? Email the Hamilton finance committee at Fincom@hamiltonma.gov and Wenham finance director Sarah Johnson at sjohnson@wenhamma.gov.

Here’s what you need to know:

SOS is promoting a "Fair Share" appropriation to the schools for fiscal year 2011 (see details here). The Fair Share is not an override or a debt exclusion, and it does not require a special election. It is the school district’s Fair Share of the money the towns legally have available to them under Proposition 2½ for appropriation at Town Meeting.

Right now, the School Committee’s preliminary budget shows 25 full-time equivalent teaching positions must be cut. A Fair Share appropriation can save 4 or even 5 of those positions.

Even with the Fair Share appropriation, we are facing the prospect of a school system with a "devalued diploma" – the school district’s own term for what will happen at the High School next year. This is bad for our property values and bad for our students, whether they’re at the High School or just starting Kindergarten.

Let the towns know that you want a Fair Share of your tax dollars to go towards minimizing the damage to your children’s school services.

Email Hamilton fincom at Fincom@hamiltonma.gov and Wenham finance director Sarah Johnson at sjohnson@wenhamma.gov and urge them to recommend a Fair Share appropriation for the school district.

Thank you for taking this critical first step in minimizing damage to our towns’ greatest asset – our school system.

Here is detail on Support Our Schools’ “fair share” position on the appropriations of Hamilton and Wenham to the FY 2010 budget for the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District. The calculation below is based on principles explained in the Notes, which follow.

Notes:

1. Because we are using the FY 2010 net school budget as a starting point, the calculation is performed without respect to Chapter 70 or any other non-town funding source. So, if those amounts decrease, the school budget must absorb those decreases. This means that, even with a fair share appropriation, the actual FY 2011 school budget will likely increase by less than 3% since the increase in the appropriations from the towns will be offset by decreases in other revenue sources. For example, in FY 2010, the actual school budget increased by 1.5% from FY 2009 although the town appropriations increased by 2%.
    
   
2. The proposed FY 2011 net school budget would be allocated between Hamilton and Wenham in accordance with the percentages calculated under the Regional Agreement.  We understand that there has been a further shift of enrollment to Wenham which, under the regional agreement, will increase Wenham’s share by approximately 0.5%.  We understand that for FY 2011, Wenham’s share will be 32.68% up from 32.15% in FY 2010. We intend to explain to voters how the share shift will increase Wenham’s appropriation to above a 3% increase, but how that is necessary to maintain a total town appropriation increase of 3%. Wenham has long been aware of the coming enrollment increase, which reflects past real estate development that increased the Wenham tax base. Also, for every dollar less that Wenham appropriates, Hamilton’s appropriation will decrease by $2, so it is not appropriate to allow the share shift to force down the appropriation to the schools in both towns, as occurred in FY 2010. Wenham needs to finance the share shift through cash reserves if the levy limit increase is not sufficient to fully fund Wenham’s fair share in FY 2011.
    
   
3. Revenue decreases or increases expected to be experienced by the towns in FY 2011 should not be considered in calculating the overall net school budget increase. These revenues include Cherry Sheet funding from the state and local receipts. As with the Chapter 70 funding (see Note 1), these amounts should be excluded from the calculation of a fair share apportionment to the schools.

Tonight, we as a community will get a first look at what cuts our school system is expected to absorb during this very difficult budget year.

Please join us at 7 p.m. in the Buker Multipurpose Room, where the Superintendent will present the school budget to all the important decision makers in our towns: the Hamilton and Wenham Boards of Selectmen, the Finance and Advisory Committees, and the School Committee.

As parents and as taxpayers, we need these officials to understand how much we value our school system.

Come and let them know how you’d like them to best use your tax dollars.

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010
7 p.m.
Buker Multipurpose Room