Amherst School Committee enduring the gauntlet known as Town Meeting
Considering the venerable Amherst Regional Public School system consumes the lion's share of the town budget, Town Meeting did not spend all that much time in discussion before overwhelmingly passing both the Regional Schools $30,022,840 budget or Elementary School's $21,869,835 budget.
Yeah you would think otherwise, considering $30 million here and $22 million there, pretty soon you're talking real money.
Vince O'Connor being, well, Vince
Although leave it to Vince O'Connor to unleash the unorthodox by making a "Motion to Refer" the Regional School budget back to the Regional School Committee for further study.
Since the other three towns (Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury) had already approved the Regional budget it would be a moot point, as per the Regional Agreement any major action does not require unanimous support of all four towns, 3 out of 4 is close enough.
Vince seemed to think Superintendent Maria Geryk, who is appointed rather than elected, has too much power and is not being micromanaged properly by the elected School Committees.
He also expressed concern that the School Committees have not done enough to get payment out of UMass for the 56 students attending ARPS that emanate from UMass tax exempt housing.
His motion failed to get a majority vote by a fair amount.
The real problem with the public schools is two fold: The exceeding high cost per pupil, averaging about $21,000 per student vs state average of around $15,000.
At $6,000 per student over state average that means the Amherst Public Schools, with 2,638 students, will cost taxpayers in FY16 an "extra" $15,828,000.
Ouch!
Thus if an Amherst student attends Hadley's Hopkins Academy we are only assessed $5,000, but if that same student attends the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School a mile away we are charged the full $20,000.
In the FY16 Amherst Public Schools will shoulder the burden for 155 students attending Charter Schools and at the Regional level an additional 55 attending Vocational Schools (at $18,000 each).
School Business Director Sean Mangano told Town Meeting last night that overall cost between Choice, Charter, and Vocational the Amherst Regional Public Schools lose around $2 million.
Now factor in the 56 students attending Amherst Public Schools who live in UMass tax exempt housing and you have another $1.2 million that is not coming into the system.
UMass Amherst is the #2 landowner and #1 employer in town
Can you imagine the outcry if there were 56 homes in Amherst each sending a child to the public schools that refused to pay their annual (exceedingly high) property tax bill?
With the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School expanding into a full elementary and secondary High School the costly prospects for losing additional students in the near future is pretty high.
If UMass would kick in their fair share maybe the Amherst Schools could afford programming that would better compete with Charter Schools and keep those valuable students in the ARPS system.
Although, Hopkins Academy -- with an under $12,000 per pupil average cost -- seems to be handling the Charter School exodus quite well.
Larry, you don't really think the problem in the schools is too little funding, right? I agree that UMass should pay something for those 56 kids. However, I would argue strongly that there are many problems in the Amherst school system, none of which is a lack of money.
ReplyDeleteI thought I made that pretty clear by comparing current costs per student with state averages.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could spend other peoples' money, my life would be so much easier.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is what % of this is paid by parents that send their kids there. Forget Umass, the parents who pay less than their share are the ones that win the lottery on this one. My sense is that there are more than 56 of them.....is there even one parent in the entire town that pays the town for the full cost of their kids ed?
To call out Umass again, the driver of the town's economy, as opposed to the parents, those that consume more than they give back, is off.
Yes, if you come to Amherst buy an expensive home, live her for only 10 or 12 years and then leave as soon as your kids graduate, then you probably did not pay your share.
ReplyDeleteBut there really are people who come here, or were born-and-raised here, that will die here.
And their children only impact the schools system for -- at most -- 12 years.
UMass professors who have time to blog at 11 am on a Tuesday during finals week.
ReplyDeleteSome people really Can multitask.
DeleteLarry, step beyond your ideological blinders and do some math. How much property tax revenue does the Section 8 Apartment produce? And how much does it cost to educate the 2-3-4 kids who reside there?
ReplyDeleteTHAT is the real tax drain, although if you want to calculate the costs of 56 NVA children, then calculate the alternative cost of small children in the units currently rented by UM students. That's be 500-2000 MORE children with NO INCREASE IN PROPERTY TAX REVENUE.
Push it enough and UMass will simply evict the children out of NVA like they did Lincoln Apts and then Vince can sponsor yet an even bigger handout of tax dollers to subsidize folks.
UM can get a LOT more money renting those apartments as dorm rooms -- like they now do in Lincoln and as NVA has always been the core base of GEO, they'd like to end that too.
And you wind up being a pawn...
ReplyDeleteLarry, are you, personally, paying $80,000/year in property taxes? That is what you would have to be paying for half of your property tax to go to fully pay for two children at (average) $20K each -- and I don't think you are.
That is where your whole argument falls apart. All of the UM kids who live off campus are subsidizing your school system -- one they have never nor ever will benefit from.
http://www.umass.edu/advocates/issues-key-messages/umass-amherst%E2%80%99s-economic-impact-massachusetts
ReplyDeleteThis argument is penny-wise and pound foolish. Sure, the cost of these 56 students may seem high to certain folks, but the economic benefit of having the school there far outweighs the cost of educating these kids. As one can see from the link above, UMass brings alot of general revenue into the state, which then goes forward as Chapter 90 funds, Chapter 70 funds, unrestricted aid, and earmarks for Amherst projects. Those people can afford to pay property taxes because they have a job on campus. Unlike Amherst, and Hampshire, UMass has an obligation to the state, not to Amherst, and by forgoing some of the PILOT's can use that money for say, more policing.
did anyone ask why the change to shift the cost of charter tuitions out of the school budget and onto the town budget? It certainly made last years budget actually increase from the year before (right)?
ReplyDeleteIn the warrant book this change was a footnote indicated by *
Yes they briefly went over it saying it was "a wash" kind of reimbursement between town and schools and it's more efficient to not show it as they did previously.
ReplyDeleteBut it certainly does perceptually change the percentages.
Thanks Larry, I though the system only really works if you stay in the town your whole life. Something that is quaint and more and more rare.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest there should be school financing system that is based on use. Even if some parents stay, most kids move on and they take their education with them.
Consider, perhaps Amherst should ID the town where most people in Amherst grew up and invest $20k per student in the schools there.
PS. Amherst HS that stick around are less desirable to hire vs. grads from other towns. Divide $20 by that.
"Unlike Amherst, and Hampshire, UMass has an obligation to the state, not to Amherst, and by forgoing some of the PILOT's can use that money for say, more policing."
ReplyDeleteOr, perhaps, in providing educational opportunities (including necessary housing) for low-income single mothers which is how they would up with these 53 children in the first place.
Or would you prefer these women to be on welfare and have Vince calling for more of your tax dollars to be given to them and still be paying to educate their children...
The only other solution, Larry, is to make k-12 a 100% parent-pays enterprise, and, in addition to everything else, it would make it a lot more White.
Oh, yes Larry -- of these 53 Children, how many are White? How many even born in this country???
Just saying....
Ed, Juggernaut, and other PR flacks:
ReplyDeleteTown Meeting just voted a $10 million Public Safety budget, of which it is fair to say 25% will deal with UMass students -- both on and off campus.
So there's $2.5 million.
The Schools issued a memo to the Finance Committee clearly saying the impact of those 56 tax-exempt UMass housing students exceeds $1.2 million.
So now we're up to $3.7 million.
UMass pays (in full) its own water/sewer bill, so why not something a tad more important like police/fire/education?
But yes, they did pay us $380,000 for AFD EMS plus another $80,000 for extra weekend ambulances plus the $30,000 for extra police on Blarney Blowout two months ago.
Or $490,000 on a bill of $3.7 million.
Amherst College pays $500,000 in taxes annually and another $90,000 PILOT for AFD.
And as I said a month ago:
"By (embarrassing) comparison the University of Vermont with a total of only 12,000 students -- less than half the size of UMass -- paid Burlington, population 42,284, $1.2 million in impact fees last year. Or more than twice as much as UMass pays Amherst, population 38,819."
And right now, as we speak, AFD is responding to Phi Sigma Kappa 510 North Pleasant Street for what will probably turn out to be a false fire alarm.
ReplyDeleteUMass pays nothing for fire runs.
ReplyDelete"Town Meeting just voted a $10 million Public Safety budget, of which it is fair to say 25% will deal with UMass students -- both on and off campus.'
The UM Students who live off campus are AMHERST RESIDENTS just like you are Larry. They pay property tax just like you do -- either directly, as part of an escrow account with the person who holds the morgage, as condo association dues, or as rent. (How many property "owners" own their properties outright with no mortage?)
Then figure in all of the AFD ambulance bills (which ARE PAID by the UM insurance and hence the UM kids) -- the money goes to the town if not the AFD, and all of those $300 fines, and all of the traffic tickets including those written by the UMPD -- that's a lot of income that you aren't calculating...
So there's $2.5 million.
"The Schools issued a memo to the Finance Committee clearly saying the impact of those 56 tax-exempt UMass housing students exceeds $1.2 million."
Three words:"Team Maria Lies!"
Show me exactly what would not be spent were those kids to evaporate tonite -- it's incremental cost versus percentage of cost.
And if UM was to stop offering Family Housing -- it's only a legacy of Vietnam and was never intended to be a service offered anyway -- guess what -- those kids are still going to be in your school system except that all the domestic violence and child abuse stuff that UM/UMPD now does will ALSO become a TOWN expense.
And as to the University of Vermont -- It's a quasi-private school!
Residents of Burlington can't use it's library for free, or any of it's other resources, and if you want UMass to become like UVM and treat Amherst like UVM treats Burlington -- you will be very sorry Larry.
Ever BEEN to Burlington?
And I forgot to mention that the University of Vermont has their own ambulance service and they provide service to Burlington.
ReplyDeleteOK Larry, then why does the City of Burlington need to bill people for it?
ReplyDeleteFrom a recent RFP":
SCOPE OF WORK
The City of Burlington, Vermont (City) desires to contract for the following services related to
the billing for the ambulance services provided by the City through it Fire Department for the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015:"
Seems to me that the City Fire Department provides ambulance services....
One other thing Larry:
ReplyDeleteBack in 1861, the residents of Amherst (and the Valley), through their elected representatives to the General Court, got a mandate that UMass be either "in a town that touches the Connecticut river or one contigious to such a town."
That's why UMass is in Amherst -- probably the only reason -- and as someone whose forebears were in Amherst at the time, why shouldn't you, personally, pay for some of the expenses you claim UMass costs the town?!?!?!?
After all, if it wasn't for the Kelly's back in the 19th Century, there would neither be drunken UM students nor UMass itself in town....
Hey, if I can feel obligated to try to help the schmuck named Brad DeFlumeri because of what my ancestors did in 1691-2, then, well...... ????
What, exactly, is the superintendent and school committee's plan to deal with this exodus of students and financial crisis?
ReplyDeleteProperty taxes are the number one revenue source for the town (state aid is #2), yet half the property in Amherst is tax exempt.
ReplyDeletePublic Schools are number one for budget consumption at $52 million but Public Safety is number two at $10 million, split almost evenly between Fire and PD.
UMass has a police force, bigger and better equipped than APD, but NO Fire Department. Thus they rely 100% on AFD.
The majority of the 56 children attending our public schools probably come from North Village Apartments, which our assessor values at $10.7 million.
Thus it SHOULD generate $220,000 in property taxes.
North Village should not be treated any differently than all the other apartment complexes in Amherst that rent to students and pay taxes.
North Village should not be treated any differently than all the other apartment complexes in Amherst that rent to students and pay taxes.
ReplyDeleteNorth village is not IN Amherst.
North Village is land which the Commonwealth has reserved for itself, commonly known as "State Property" -- and I think that the Town should pay for its own police and refund the mutual aid fee back to UMass...
Why doesn't the APD have to respond to North Village (like they DO have to respond to Amherst College if somene calls them)?
Why didn't the APD have jurisdiction until there was a mutual aid agreement?
North Village is no more in Amherst than the Quabbin is in Pelham (even if Pelham still maintains a marked border with the portions of Prescott that are above water).
If you send a letter to someone who lives in North Village you use the address Amherst, Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteAnd if it ever -- God forbid -- catches fire, AFD will be the ones who come to put it out.
To protect us from the evil UMass villains we need border fences, and guards, and German Shepard dogs, and klieglights, and sirens, and barbed wire, and security checkpoints. We need to call the guilty before town meeting to state their loyalties:
ReplyDelete"I ask you, sir, are you now or have you ever been associated with the University of Massachusetts?"
Gene, I think you've confused yourself with Joe McCarthy.
ReplyDeleteGene was an affable man who helped take down LBJ, and remained a hero to many of us until his death.
This guy you're paraphrasing is Joe.
And I'll bet you flunked American History class.
And I forgot to mention to him: Sarcasm -- or whatever you call that -- requires its own special font.
ReplyDeleteLarry, are you getting all this down from Ed?
ReplyDeleteThere will be a quiz later.
:"If you send a letter to someone who lives in North Village you use the address Amherst, Massachusetts."
ReplyDeleteNo, you technically address it 01002-1373 -- everything else is redundant as that is the carrier route -- and as Pelham's Zip Code is also 01002, so I guess that Amherst can tax property in Pelham too?
And some Federal agencies have the Hartford Office serving Western Massachusetts -- that mean you pay your state income tax to Connecticut?
Although there is an interesting related point: even though Verizon is required to install (at the customer's expense) a telephone in any Amherst residence, including Puffton Village, it is not permitted to install telephones in North Village. North Village is not in Amherst.
And if it ever -- God forbid -- catches fire, AFD will be the ones who come to put it out.
Much like the fire departments of the various little towns that the MassPike goes through are required to come out and extinguish car fires on the Pike even though it most definitely is not in their towns.
Remember that the reason why the Pike's Right-of-way is such a utility conduit is because the utilities neither have to get permits from all the towns nor pay taxes to them -- all they have to do is negotiate with the MassPike as to how much they will pay to lease whatever space they need.
And the Mass Pike reimburses those various little towns' fire departments when they come to the pike to extinguish a car fire.
ReplyDelete20 or so years ago the rate was $300.