Dan Dunn

I was too pooped/distracted to write after either meeting this week – the notes are late, but here they go. Minuteman Voc figured prominently both nights so I’ll start there.

Superintendent Bill Callahan, Assistant Superintendent Tom Markham, and Arlington’s representative to the Minuteman School Committee, Laura Morrissette were there on Monday to present and answer questions. I’m going to condense almost two hours of discussion into a few paragraphs.

The budget is a 3.8% increase over last year. Arlington’s enrollment is down 10%. Because of the district funding formula, Arlington’s assessment went up 11%, $400,000, to $3,276,622. That is, of course, far outside the 4% in the 5-year plan.

• Superintendent Callahan is retiring. The board is conducting a search.
• The school is working to reverse the enrollment slump. The slump is particularly in the freshman and senior classes.
• The school can handle 900+ students and is far below that number.
• The board is considering reducing the 20+ programs to a lower number in order to reduce costs.
• Class size is between 15 and 20 depending on the class area, with 7-8 for special ed resource rooms.
• The state continues to fail to fund what it once promised. For instance, the law requires that the state fund 100% of transportation costs, but hasn’t met that in ages. The budget hopes for 80% funding.
• Most of the increase in the budget is in salaries, while all of the academic areas were cut. There are some outstanding questions about the salaries that I’m waiting for answers on.

FinComm had previously heard that Arlington was blocking Minuteman from visiting or recruiting. This prompted several questions. It came out that Arlington was the only school denying access to 7th and 8th graders. The degree of cooperation of the 16 towns varies, but Arlington was the most restricted. This was controversial, and I expect it to come up when the school budget is heard.

There were a zillion questions about why the funding works out the way it does. I’ve spent hours looking at this stuff, and I’m following up on a few inquries. It’s not easy to figure out the Minuteman finances. Enrollment has been a challenge for years. They’ve developed a number of part-time programs to make better use of the capacity, including out-of-district students, placing teachers in middle schools, and after school programs. Sorting through the various costs and assessments is a real challenge.

• The Full Time Equivalent student (FTE) is the unit that is most commonly used. Arlington has 156 FTE high school students, and 171 FTE in total programming. Minuteman has 445 in-district FTE high school students, and 635 in-district FTE programming. There are 245 out-of-district FTE students, for a total of 882 FTE.
• Note that barely half on Minutman’s budget is for in-district high school education.
• The ’08 budget is $16.7 million. Basic division shows that as $18,900 in cost per FTE pupil. But, that includes things like the 125 FTE in middle school teaching that is only $3200 per FTE! When you take out some of the part-time programs, the per-student cost of regular high school students starts to approach $25,000 per year. There is more research to be done here.
• Out-of-district students pay between $13,500 and $15,500 in tuition.

The hearing finished on Monday. On Wednesday, FinComm discussed the budget.

• There was discussion about the long-term future of Minuteman. It seems doubtful that Minuteman can attract enough students from the 16 towns. Attracting another town also seems like a long shot.
• There is no realistic way to get out of the district – legislative action and even a statewide petion were discussed.
• Minuteman is doing a good job of controlling costs (2%, 3%, and 3.75% increases) but the Arlington assessment keeps going up by more that 10% each year.
• A significant part of the problem is the state government. The state encouraged towns to create schools, and offered 50% funding as a carrot. It has not lived up to its end of the bargain.

In the end, approval of the budget was recommended by a vote of 12-5. I was one of the five that opposed the budget. I appreciate the educational opportunities that Minuteman offers. But, there has to be another way. It just doesn’t make sense for Arlington to pay so much per student and subsidize other towns’ students. I didn’t vote no because I had a ready alternative. I voted so that Minuteman, the state, and the voters of Arlington know that the status quo is not acceptable.