State aid hurts some local schools Amherst, Belchertown and Granby all see a drop in some aspect of their budgets

By Bob Dunn and KRISTINA TEDESCHI
Staff Writers

Published on April 13, 2007

First, the good news.

The Massachusetts House and Senate voted to increase Chapter 70 educational aid, adding $20 million to Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed amount of $200 million.

Now, the bad news.

The local aid resolution distributes the money to local schools using different calculations than the governor did, meaning that 83 Massachusetts school districts will be receiving less education aid than they were expecting based on Patrick's budget numbers released in February.

By percentage, Belchertown is one of the 10 school districts hardest hit and will receive 4.9 percent less aid than originally projected - about $578,500 less, according to recent reports. Nearby Granby will be working with $80,000 less than expected, said state Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst.

Belchertown Superintendent Richard Pazasis declined to comment at length on the matter by telephone Thursday, waiting until the final budget numbers were in.

"I really don't want to comment until we see some more information," Pazasis said. "The legislators have a very difficult job to do. We're going to remain optimistic."

Barbara Schaffer Bacon, chairwoman of the Belchertown School Committee, qualified the drop in aid as "a huge blow. We're a growing community; we'll have to make some really difficult choices."

Granby Superintendent Patricia Stevens said that the lower amount of state aid will have an adverse effect on the schools. "The amount of that adversity, I don't know yet," Stevens said.

Stevens said that because the amount that the town will contribute to the school budget next year is unknown, she can't know what the net loss to the schools will be.

"We already have $300,000 in cuts to make," Stevens said. "Now we have more cuts to make."

In the case of Amherst schools, it's more good news vs. bad news.

The good news is that Amherst regional schools will receive about $10,000 more under the resolution than they would have before.

The bad news is that the Amherst elementary schools will receive almost $93,000 less than they would have under Patrick's calculations.

"We would have liked to hear better news," said Amherst Regional School Committee Chairwoman Elaine Brighty. "To hear that money is going down and it's only April is discouraging."

Brighty, like Pazasis, said that she wasn't going to jump to any conclusions until the final budget numbers are approved.

Some communities, however, fared better under the new resolution. Even though the Northampton School District is gaining about $60,000 as a result of the switch, said Superintendent Isabelina Rodriguez Babcock, the increase in state aid won't change her budget proposal.

"The mayor made it pretty clear at School Committee that additional funds that might come from the state would go back to her reserves," Rodriguez Babcock said.

Mayor Clare Higgins told the committee at its last meeting on March 22 that she was holding all city departments to as close to a 2 percent increase as possible.

That means the public schools are still looking at a $450,000 increase from the city over last year's figure, the superintendent said. Rodriguez Babcock originally requested a 5.5 percent increase, $1.2 million, over last year's figure of $22 million..

In Easthampton, an email from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents to Superintendent Deborah N. Carter Thursday indicated a $20,000 increase in Chapter 70 aid over the amount the governor presented, Carter said.

"I think what's helping us is growing (student) numbers," she said. "A lot of schools are in worse shape than us."

She said she is not anticipating any cuts for fiscal 2008, and the district may be able to add new positions. But as the other school leaders have said, Carter emphasized that nothing has been finalized yet.

At this point, Carter said the city is talking about providing an amount 4.5 to 4.7 percent greater that last year's budget - much less than the 8.65 percent increase the superintendent originally requested.

"We're not going to get what we asked for, and we knew that," Carter said. "But, the mayor's figures change with what's in the news."

Some legislators saw the disparity between the two sets of numbers as a calculation error.

Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said Patrick "tweaked" the formula that calculates how Chapter 70 aid is distributed from the formula that the Senate revised and approved last year, while the Senate stuck to the original formula.

According to an Associated Press article, Rep. Patricia A. Haddad, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said the administration had made an "error" when calculating the distributions.

Story disagrees. "It's not a mistake; it's a different approach," she said.

Rosenberg said the Legislature's resolution reflects a 6.4 increase in overall educational spending. The resolution passed both the House and the Senate by wide margins, Story and Rosenberg said.

Story said the 19 Republican representatives tried to amend the resolution, including adding a "no harm" provision that would have ensured that communities would receive no less aid than they would have under the earlier calculations.

Story said that measure failed with only the Republicans and five Democrats - including herself - voting in favor of it.

Rosenberg said the resolution will likely receive gubernatorial approval in its current form.