With the upcoming May 1st Mendon Annual Town Meeting, we have the opportunity to write the next chapter of Mendon’s rich history. At stake is a $1.1M proposition 2 ½ override vote to fund the Mendon-Upton Regional School District: a district we can take pride in for continuing to earn high rankings for academic performance in the top ranked state for education in the nation. This is in spite of cuts that took place during the Great Recession and a per pupil expenditure still ranked in the bottom 14% of MA public schools.
How will your support of the MURSD budget benefit you?
- Families will see a reduction in fees that will offset a tax increase. For a relatively modest investment in what is primarily a level-services budget, the FY 15-16 school budget proposes to: a) make our town competitive with neighboring towns re: fees for sports & extracurricular activities; b) mitigate fees at the middle school; and c) migrate to a loaner model for the technology 1:1 learning program.
- All residents will realize the benefits of property values commensurate with a desirable town. Research indicates that tax increases to improve schools result in increased property values.
- Residents will have a stronger voice with the state if we show a good faith effort towards a local solution. Supporting this override aligns us more closely to the “state funding formula” mandated back in 2006-07, of which Mendon and Upton are 2 of 72 communities still below the target set by the state.
Mendon is fiscally conservative and has taken positive steps to increase revenue while minimizing expenditure growth through long range financial planning. However, in the state’s eyes, it is time for Mendon (and Upton) to contribute more locally to our schools, and the only way to do this is with an override.
Now is the time for Mendon residents to invest wisely in our future with a YES vote at town meeting and on May 12th at the ballot to create a sustainable environment for our community. The alternative decimates our schools. Let’s create Mendon’s next chapter together as a valuable and competitive community with this long-term investment – and who knows what emerging leaders might follow in the footsteps of town descendents like President William Howard Taft.
Respectfully,
Kathleen Nicholson, Mendon
UPTON DAILY 
You can find all the data on foundation budget and target share here: http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/chapter-16p.html\
Choose the complete formula spreadsheet, this is the workbook for FY16. This is all the data related to foundation budget and target share.
There is some confusion on foundation budget (required net school spending), spending above foundation, and target share. There are three line items in each town’s budget for the schools (BVT too):
1. Minimum Local Contribution (MLC) – this along with Chapter 70 aid makes up foundation budget, and is mandated as the bottom amount a town can fund its schools at. MLC is what is being increased to get to target share while chapter 70 remains at the state minimum of $20-$25 per student increase.
2. Transportation and Fixed Assets – this is required by regional agreement between Mendon and Upton. It is the difference between the total cost for transportation for all students, and what is received in regional transportation reimbursement. By statute the reimbursement is supposed to be 100% of the cost of transportation for regular ed (no SPED) students who live beyond 1.5 miles from the school they attend, but is currently reimbursed at 60%.
3. Operational Additional – this is above foundation, is discretionary, and consists of prior overrides. In Mendon it used to be over $1.1 million, but will be around $550K in FY16 with no override.
Mendon is currently 4.4% below its target, Upton around 5.6% below. In the coming years both towns can expect to see increases in MLC with minimal increases in chapter 70 to adjust the percentages to their target. We are not there yet, even though the towns do spend above foundation budget (required net school spending). The amount each town contributes from operational additional will decrease since the amount of available funds they can apply to the schools is less than the mandated increases in MLC and transportation and fixed assets.
Thanks for the response Jay. Do you know why the MLC in the “regional dist members” tab differs from that in the “townwide contributions” tab. Saying we are 4.4% below target is based on the numbers in the latter rather than the former, and where much of the “anxiety” seems to be. If the goal is to get that latter tab up to 0%, Mendon’s spending only needs to increase $481k. If we wanted it to be at the avg 1.36% over target, Mendon would need to spend an additional $632K. Yet, Mendon is being asked to dish out $1.3M in an override?
Target share for each town is based on their contribution to all schools, so for Mendon that is MURSD, BVT, and 2 students at Norfolk Aggie. The difference between those two tabs is the regional district members is just MURSD.
Thanks Jay. That makes sense to me now. So how does Mendon compare to the MLC at $5,971,725 for MURSD specifically? I apologize if this answer is somewhere easy to find…i’m trying to keep the numerous data locations straight!
That’s harder to say. DESE doesn’t set a foundation budget for Mendon only for MURSD, only education as a whole. The district is around 60/40, while the target is around 65/35, so approximately 5% away. I don’t know where to find specifically Mendon just for MURSD. I know the number of students from Mendon or Upton attending BVT skews the MLC increases some. For example in FY16 Mendon MURSD is up 6% while Upton MURSD is up 4%, because Upton has 50 more students at BVT than Mendon.
I would have to assume that Mendon finance committee would have the answer? I guess I’ll search there. We should be able to find out how much money we sent to MURSD and how that compares to the MLC of $5,971,725.
The proposed FY16 budget for Mendon is:
MLC $5,971,725
Transportation & fixed assets $829,189
Operational additional (w/override) $1,690,718
Operational additional (w/o override) $556,891
Target share only involves MLC and chapter 70, which is $12,120,106 which is for the district. I don’t think you can look at just Mendon’s funding to calculate spending above NSS. Maybe I am misunderstanding your question.
The statement that Mendon is “underspending” on MURSD by 4.4% alone is not actually true. The town is under spending in total for MURSD/BVT/school choice combined. Adding money to bring that up to target could be go to BVT or the school choice kids and the state documentation would have us at target. We may not be underspending to MURSD at all. We may be just fine or even spending over target as one blog pointed out after speaking with Roger Hatch at DESE. I want to confirm or deny that claim by seeing what Mendon is proposing to spend on MURSD in relation to the MLC $5,971,725 of Mendon for MURSD. By the way, I could also be looking at how all these numbers intertwine completely wrong.
Yes, there are a lot of pieces to this, and no one has ever stated that the towns do not currently fund above what is required. Here is the bottom line to me….let’s go with the idea that the override fails. For FY16 the required funding increase (MLC and transportation & fixed assets) are increasing by $545K. Mendon can afford $204K so operational additional is reduced by the rest to meet the required increase. if the same plays out for the next two years, in FY17 operational additional will decrease from $556K to around $215K. In FY18 there will not be enough to meet the required amounts. Then the town either cuts something in town services, or passes an override for town services. We would also be funding the schools at the minimum allowed without being penalized by the state. So the real crux is what are your expectations for your school and town services? Nobody wants their taxes to increase, but I would prefer to pay locally than at the state or federal level, because locally I can see the results. Since we’ve already gone down the road of cutting and then rebuilding, I don’t see why we want to do that again. I look at this as an investment in our community and would rather invest now to build for the future rather than invest later to rebuild what has been cut. Others don’t and we can respectively disagree.
Good questions. I’ve learned a lot by attending and/or listening in to School Committee meetings, BOS, and Fincom meetings, so I’m attaching a link to some of these recorded meetings to help make sense of it. Highly recommended to watch 3/16 MURSD open budget hearing and 4/6 School Committee Meeting: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCssgNmd9thVVYe1tGP15X2w.
If you’d like to do the 2 of 72 calculation yourself, it’s right from the DOE website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/chapter-16p.html.
You can find the workbook here by clicking on “Complete formula spreadsheet”, and then go to the town wide contribution tab. Percentage from target is column AB.
To the other comment: MURSD is around 113% of “foundation” budget, but the state average is 119%… below average spend on a bare bones mandated budget. MURSD per pupil spending is also well below state average (279 out of 324 to be exact – also from DOE website). I could get into a lot of detail on target share based on state’s funding formula shifting more responsibility to local municipalities, but I’m not a blogger nor do I follow them. Please listen to these meetings, and I hope to see you at ATM. Thank you, Kathleen Nicholson
Thanks for posting data and sources Kathleen.
Where is the source data for this “Mendon and Upton are 2 of 72 communities still below the target set by the state” I keep seeing?
According to Roger Hatch, Administrator of School Finance at the DESE, the district pays about $300K OVER target. I have yet to see a response from the school district regarding this claim. You can reach Roger Hatch at the DESE at 781-338-6527.
Mendon paid over target. No word on Upton yet.