Town spends more per pupil than counterparts

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on April 25, 2008

Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional school districts spend considerably more per pupil - $14,409 and $15,154, respectively - than comparable school systems in Northampton, which spends $10,979, and Longmeadow, which spends $10,139. The state average is $11,865.

But in most respects, these and other school districts across the region stack up pretty equally, an observation Thomas Mazza, business manager of the Longmeadow schools, has made about their financial profiles. Longmeadow is often compared to Amherst as a high-achieving school district.

"For the most part, you'll see pretty standard average costs in western Massachusetts for teachers salaries and so on," Mazza said.

The Amherst schools have 135 teachers and a 2007 budget of $20.2 million, according to Department of Education figures, and Amherst regional schools, which also serve Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham, have 153 teachers and a 2007 budget of $26.1 million (Amherst's contribution to the regional budget is $11,904,066), compared to a total of 226 teachers and a $29 million budget in Northampton and 246 teachers and a $28.9 million budget in Longmeadow.

The average teacher salary in fiscal year 2007 was $57,930 in Amherst, $56,386 in the Amherst regional schools, $54,340 in Longmeadow and $50,785 in Northampton, according to the Department of Education.

The state average is $58,188.

Their salaries account for the highest percentage of the total pupil cost in the three districts.

Student-teacher ratios, according to the DOE, range from 10.8 to 1 in Amherst and 12.1 to 1 in Amherst-Pelham Regional schools to 13.1 in Longmeadow, with Northampton in the middle with 12.6 to 1.

The percentage of students receiving special education, always a significant variable in factoring costs, is 17.9 percent in Amherst and 18.4 in the Amherst regional schools, compared to 15.9 in Northampton and 20.7 in Longmeadow.

High school students in the three communities perform well on SAT tests, judging from College Board data from 2006.

While high school graduates scored an average 513 on the critical reading test, average MCAS scores ranged from a high critical reading score of 580 in Amherst, 549 in Northampton and 548 in Longmeadow.

<h4>Costs are a factor</h4>

The Bulletin also examined state and federal data which suggest that higher insurance and retirement costs are a major factor in the higher per-pupil cost in Amherst.

According to Department of Education data, "Insurance, Retirement Programs and Other" costs amount to 20.6 percent of the total per-pupil cost in Amherst elementary schools and 18.43 percent in the regional schools, compared to 10.96 percent of the total in Longmeadow and 14.48 percent in Northampton.

Robert Detweiler, finance chief for the Amherst schools, said he performed quick comparisons of DOE per-pupil spending data in 10 school districts geographically closest to Amherst.

"When I rank the administration, instructional leadership, teaching services, materials, equipment and technology and maintenance, Amherst is right in the middle of that group," Detweiler said.

Amherst ranks closer to the top in other categories, such as classroom specialists and insurance and retirement costs, he noted. "I'm not sure what's in that bin," he added of the latter, "but it could well be that we have a lot of retirees we're paying."

<h4>Tough to compare</h4>

Detweiler agreed with Mazza and Susan Wright, business manager for Northampton schools, that it is tricky comparing numbers. Amherst schools pay insurance and retirement costs that Longmeadow picks up in its municipal budget, although the DOE presumably redistributes costs in an attempt to provide apples-to-apple comparisons, Mazza said.

Special education costs are notoriously difficult to compare, the finance chiefs said.

"The level of in-district programs can have an impact on what you need to spend," Mazza said. And fuel costs can be a significant variable, depending on whether schools have dual burners that allow them to switch between natural gas or oil, depending on which costs less at the time, he said.

Andrew Churchill, chairman of the Amherst School Committee, said benchmarking the district with others is a good idea.

"I'm very pleased that our SAT scores are significantly higher than average and than other high-performing districts in the area; it's a testament to our staff and our community."

Churchill is also interested in finding out more about the fiscal differences, he said, "so we can make an apples-to-apples comparison and see why our insurance/pensions line appears higher than other districts."

Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee Chairwoman Elaine Brighty explained the cost of educating Amherst-area students, saying "Amherst always has highly valued education and its public schools, and the four towns in the Amherst-Pelham Region have shown strong commitment to supporting the schools to provide a strong education even while state aid has fallen far behind."

<h4>Demographics</h4>

The percentage of low-income population students whose first language is not English and black, white, Latino and Asian student populations contribute the schools' unique profiles.

Some 28 percent of Amherst and 16.7 percent of Amherst-Pelham regional schools students fall into the low-income category, compared to 28.9 percent statewide; 25.1 percent in Northampton and 3.7 percent in Longmeadow.

Black students comprise 8.2 percent of school populations statewide, 7.5 percent in Amherst and 8.3 percent in the Amherst regional schools, compared to 2.9 percent in Longmeadow and 3.6 percent in Northampton.

The percentage of students whose first language is not English statewide is 14.9 percent, compared to 12.3 percent in Amherst and 12.5 percent in the Amherst regional schools; 7.5 percent in Northampton and 3.5 percent in Longmeadow.

Amherst's schools have a 16.4 percent Latino population and the regional schools have 9.3 percent Latino students, compared to the state average of 13.3 percent, 12.9 percent in Northampton and Longmeadow's 1.4 percent.

Asians, meanwhile, comprise 12.6 percent of the student population in Amherst schools and 9.3 percent in Amherst's regional schools, compared to 4.8 percent statewide, 5.8 percent in Longmeadow and 4.6 percent in Northampton, while whites comprise 53.7 percent of Amherst and 68 percent of the Amherst regional schools population, 75.9 percent in Northampton and 89.4 in Longmeadow.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.