This is the second post in a series covering the Mendon Upton school budget. There is a lot of information floating around in the community and it can be confusing to tell fact from fiction. So let’s dive in and discuss what’s true and what’s not regarding the E&D account, the Special Education Contingency line item, Mendon Upton Superintendent Dr. Joseph Maruszczak’s pay and his Volvo.
Before we take the plunge into this very lengthy post it’s important for all to know there is a school budget hearing scheduled for the MU FY15/16 on Monday March 16 at Nipmuc – 7 p.m. The hearing is a great opportunity to learn more about the budget and to have any specific questions you may have addressed.
Background: Every regional school district must maintain an Excess and Deficiency (E & D) Account. In cities or towns this fund is referred to as Free Cash and in business it is similar to retained earnings. At the end of every fiscal year, any surplus or deficit in the district’s general fund is placed in or taken from the E&D fund. Every year and in every regional school district this fund is certified by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. The Special Education Contingency line item is monies set aside to handle unforeseen special education outside placements.
FACT: Prior to Maruszczak’s arrival the district was advised by the DESE Office of School Finance to create a Special Education (SpED) contingency line item in the amount of $500,000 to fund unforeseen special education expenses. This was advised because the district was hit with 3 very costly out-of-district placements (that had moved into town) during the 2009-10 school year. The cost of the placements had a negatively impacted E&D which fell to -1.2 million dollars. Maruszczak’s predecessor and the Regional School Committee created the SpED contingency line item based on DESE’s recommendation. The line was funded at $500,000 in FY12 and FY13, and then at $400,000 in FY14. In FY12 the district used all of the Sped contingency account for out of district tuition as designed. In FY13 and FY14 the funds went unused and were saved into E&D. E&D was built back up to a healthy, sustainable level and in FY15 the SpEd contingency line was zeroed out at the recommendation of Maruszczak.
FACT: It is common for regional school districts to “self-fund” their operational budget, and as a matter of fact BVT and other districts do this frequently. BVT has proposed allocating $250,000 of E&D for their FY15/16 budget. When E&D funds are used for recurring expenses the balance should be healthy and the allocation not too large (in the range of at least 2-3% of the preceding year’s budget). It’s a fine balance of not over or under budgeting. MU did see a fairly large allocation from E&D for FY15, $700K – which would be considered a one time fund. This is not being proposed in FY16 and should not continue in future years. The large allocation came into play because at the time both towns had stressors to their annual budget, Mendon finalizing contracts with various employee groups and Upton being hit with a 32% increase in assessment for its students going to BVT (an increase of $272,678). One time spending did not result in the Towns having to pick up the increase in the following years.
The bottom line is the school budget is being stressed due to a decrease in Chapter 70 funding by the state and also cuts in regional transportation aid (regional schools can not charge students for transportation). There is a structural deficit built into the system as the state pays less and less and the towns or forced to make up the difference. Towns are forced to decide to either let the schools budgets get decimated or to raise taxes. .
FACT: Maruszczak’s 2013 Volvo is not funded by the school district. Maruszczak pays for his own vehicle.
FACT: Maruszczak does not get paid more than Milford’s Superitendent. Milford’s Superintendent gets paid $8,600 more a year. You should know that Maruszczak took a pay freeze this year and that he gets paid significantly less (over 50k less) than BVT’s superintendent.
Here are some links you may find interesting.
Below are examples of towns using E&D to fund to cover shortfalls
Dennis/Yarmouth Regional School District: http://capecod.wickedlocal.com/article/20150226/News/150227202
UPTON DAILY 
Yes they do have a fantastic special ed department but what they don’t hAve are kids with great and extremely costly needs or have to pay for costly out if district placements.
YES!!! BVT Does have SpEd individuals & a Fantastic SeEd director.
Does anyone know if BVT even has any SpEd students? Presumably, since they can choose who they want as students, they leave the most costly of these students for the towns to educate rather tan take that expense on. There was no mention of what BVT does with their SpEd account.