An Expensive Consideration (With A View)

Ron Bohonowicz extolled the southwest view to consider for library location

The Wildwood School Building Committee met yesterday in the Middle School for the first time since the Amherst School Committee pretty much boxed them in for building designs with their controversial 4-1 vote in favor of grade reconfiguration that requires two separate schools under one roof.

Amherst School (aka Wildwood) Building Committee yesterday

After almost two hours of painstaking presentation of four options that meet the ASC requirement, Building Committee Chair Mike Morris pretty much dismissed two of the options because they require "swing space" -- a temporary location to hold classes for all the students displaced by construction.

 Four options (pretty much whittled down to two)

Mr. Morris pointed out there are no spaces in Amherst large enough to handle all the Wildwood students and so the Schools would have to rent space at six or eight different locations strewn about the entire town.

Therefor due to "safety, learning and transportation considerations" he would prefer to avoid using swing space.  Superintendent Maria Geryk was nodding her head in agreement as he spoke.

Since the presentations took up most of the scheduled time for the two hour meeting the group will discuss and decide at their next meeting February 2, but it's pretty safe to assume the choice will be between W10 ($60,893,000) and W12 ($67,176,167).

 Maria Kopicki warns during Public Comment that public sentiment needs to be more carefully considered

Coincidentally the Amherst Finance Committee met in Town Hall just after the School Building Committee adjourned and during the "member report" Marylou Theilman brought up the school building project.

She presented a spreadsheet to the FinCom showing cost options for the Amherst short list as well as the most recent costs of school projects across the state financed by MSBA.

   Amherst School Cost Comparisons

 
One member wondered what the role of the Finance Committee would be in this process?  Chair Kay Moran pointed out they are advisers to Town Meeting, and it would be Town Meeting and then the voters who approve a debt exclusion Override to fund the new school construction project.

And even after it passes Town Meeting, although Ms. Moran thought it would be a "high hurdle" because it requires two-thirds support, it could still fall under their purview to educate the voters as to the financial implications of a yes vote: A $200 year tax increase for 30 years on an average home.
 
And maybe where Amherst currently sits for property tax rates statewide (in the top ten).

Ms. Theilman did say she was somewhat surprised when talking to one of the architects to learn that the moisture problems at Wildwood or Fort River would be solved by a simple renovation.  The old foundation is dug up, removed, and a moisture barrier installed before a new foundation is poured. 

School & Construction officials appear before Amherst Select Board 1/11/16 with Vince stalking in background

Mega School Or Bust

Amherst School Committee last night

Unsurprisingly the Amherst School Committee after two hours of public hearing -- more than half of it criticism from the general public -- voted 4-1 in favor of the administration's  preferred "Grade Reconfiguration 2-6" model that will create a 750 student two-wing school and turn Crocker Farm Elementary School into a pre K-1st Grade early childhood education superstore.



Interestingly this 'separate but equal' concept of twin schools under one roof is the result of concerns over equity for students of color, low-income and single-parent families (and combinations thereof) that make up a sizable percentage of the Amherst public school population.

Crowd of 40 attended, many of them critical of mega-school

The only School Committee member who had not telegraphed her vote last week was Kathleen Traphaghan.  In her presentation she extensively cited her 14-year-old son as a main source for information for this epic decision, which is sort of like a smoking enthusiast justifying their bad habit by citing their grandfather who smoked two-packs a day since teen years and lived to be 93.

Traphagen also criticized the local hometown newspaper for pre-coverage of this "agonizing" decision as being "flippant," making it seem that cost was not a factor.  "We live in this town like everybody else", she said with a sigh. 

Costs will come in between $61.2 and $66.3 million depending on Wildwood School Building Committee pick

Black sheep member of the 5-member School Committee Vira Douangmany Cage played her usual watchdog role, questioning the process as a violation of Open Meeting Law, since the agenda posted on the town website did not clearly show a vote would be taken.

 Agenda posted on town website does not clearly indicate a vote would be taken

ASC Chair Katherine Appy responded that the agenda was clear on the school website and this was pretty much the way they always did things.

Last year, after a number of posting snafus that cancelled meetings at the last minute, the Regional School Committee voted to allow posting of meetings and agendas on the ARPS Regional website rather than relying on hard copy postings in all four towns. The state does allow this, but only for regional entities, which the Amherst School Committee is not.

 Former Amherst School Committee member Andy Churchill spoke in favor of reconfiguration

Crocker Farm Principal Derek Shea spoke in favor of making his school preK-1st Grade

The Wildwood School Building Committee will discuss the School Committee decision tomorrow night as they have the final authority with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a single project that will receive between 50 and 55% reimbursement from the state.

According to Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (also chair of the Wildwood School Building Committee):

"There will be discussion of the options at the SBC meeting tomorrow and a vote at the 2/2 SBC meeting on the Preferred Schematic Report (a submission to the MSBA that includes this choice).  As mentioned at last Wednesday's meeting and community forum, another design option (W11) that is very similar to W5 but made for the 750 student building will be presented, so there are four potential building designs to consider (W11, W10, W7, FR5)."

 Forever activist Vince O'Connor predicts disaster for the Reconfiguration scenario

O'Connor's preferred choise is twice as expensive

Vince O'Connor, who championed the most expensive concept of using the MSBA to deal with Wildwood only and have the town go it alone renewing Fort River,  exposed a conspiracy theory that town officials wish to close down Fort River so it could be used as the new Department of Public Works building, another mega-building-project on the immediate horizon.

O'Connor also predicted the MSBA will not even approve the Reconfiguration model since it does not have overwhelming public support.  And even if it does make it to the floor of Town Meeting for a debt exclusion Override vote, it will fail like the elementary school Override did back in 1992.

With Amherst property tax rates already in the top ten statewide, the $200+ added to the average tax bill by a debt exclusion Override for another 30 years to finance this mega-school is going to be a very tough sell.  School officials are putting all their eggs in this one expensive basket.

Indeed the die is now cast, the Rubicon has been crossed.  Let's hope School Superintendent Maria Geryk fares a tad better than Julius Caesar.

Mike Morris and Maria Geryk listening to critical public comments

Kathleen Traphagen not happy with most recent Gazette story as well

Smaller Is Better

School Committee will vote Jan 19 on new school project

Just like the teacher/staff comments I uploaded earlier today, these numerous comments from concerned parents/guardians provide a fascinating glimpse into the exceedingly hard -- and unpopular -- choice the Amherst School Committee is about to make.

Click to enlarge/read

 Only two motions for Amherst School Committee to vote on at 1/19 meeting

And the people are mobilizing:

Amherst Parent/Guardian School Comments

Is Smaller Better?

Wildwood has plenty of space out back for a new building

Staff open ended comments on the Amherst Elementary School Building issue that came in via the recent survey (with a 50% response rate) give a telling snapshot look of this controversial issue.

I'm a little surprised school officials did not make it more widely available to the general public.

Well, maybe not so surprised.

Click link below to go to Scribd to better read:

Amherst School Staff Survey Comments

Our Survey Says

Dan McMurrer (an Amherst resident) from McBassi & Co presenting survey results

UPDATE: Thursday morning
Scroll to bottom of post for all Powerpoint slides presented last night

#####

The somewhat rushed survey of parents/guardians and teacher/staff approved at a cost of $2,500 in late December by the Amherst School Committee was presented to a joint meeting of the School Committee and Wildwood Building Committee early this evening.

In fact the meeting personnel in the front of the room outnumbered spectators in attendance, although there is a Community Public Forum later this evening to discuss design options, costs and timeline for the expensive project.

 4:00 PM meeting was sparsely attended

The results of the two surveys show strong support for option B, the mega-school with two separate but equal wings -- aka two schools in one, with cost estimates that range from $57 to $66 million. Although the results were a lot stronger with teachers/staff than with parents/guardians.

In fact, if you factor in the margin of error Option A & B were essentially tied in the parents/guardian survey.  

Since Option B is two schools in one -- Wildwood and Fort River -- Amherst would then have only two elementary schools, the new mega school and Crocker Farm.

 Click to enlarge/read

Teacher/staff chose "Healthy work & learning environment" as #1 reason and #2 was "Impact on student learning."  While the parent/guardians also chose those as their top two reasons, only in reverse order.

Option A is simply to rebuild Wildwood, either new or renovate, and maintain three elementary schools, with hopefully Fort River getting renovated at a future date.  Cost ranges for those options range from $34 to $38 million.

The Mass School Building Authority will cover about half, possibly 55%, the total project cost.

 Much better crowd for the 6:30 Community Forum

The Amherst School Committee will make their BIG final decision on January 19th.

 Click to enlarge/read

   Amherst School Options

Early School Budget Prognostication

Sean Mangano and Superintendent Maria Geryk at Four Towns Meeting earlier this month

In addition to the hour or so discussing the Wildwood School project -- and unanimously authorizing a hurried $2,500 survey of all staff and educators in the elementary school system about which expensive school renewal they favor -- the Amherst School Committee also heard a brief report from Business Director Sean Mangano about the state of FY17 budget (which starts July 1st).

Interestingly the elementary budget is in almost the exact same boat as the four town Regional system (and neither of them are taking on water):  At the Four Towns Meeting earlier this month he pegged the Regional level services budget at a $460,000 deficit and he told the Amherst School Committee the elementary budget is currently $480,000 in the hole.

 Click to enlarge/read

According to Mr. Mangano:

"As I mentioned last night, the three drivers of the budget increase are three more classrooms than anticipated, steps/colas for all staff, and an increase in the net charter assessment. Each town department was allocated a 2.5% increase which equates to $546,746 for the elementary school.

Since the Town pays charter costs on behalf of the schools, it deducts the increase in charter tuition from our increase. The net charter increase in FY16 is projected to be $282,651 which leaves an allowable increase of $264,095 for the schools.

There are some other adjustments for school choice but the end result is the schools get a 1% increase in their operating budget. Interestingly enough, the large increase in the net charter assessment is driven mostly by declining reimbursements. DESE projects an increase of charter 5 students which is $89,640 of the increase. The other $193,011 is due to insufficient state aid to fund the reimbursements. DESE projects Amherst will get 24% of the total reimbursement. 

And lastly, the projected reduction has improved and now stands at $480,000. "

 Those damn Charters!

The 10% Solution

Representatives from Amherst, Pelham, Leverett & Shutesbury met today 

Officials from all four towns came together this afternoon at the Regional Middle School trying to work out some sort of compromise so all four towns could start building their budgets.

In order to dissuade Shutesbury from implementing the "The Nuclear Option", whereby their Town Meeting votes down the Regional Assessment Method from the current rolling five year average cost per pupil basis, which would then automatically reverts the Region to the "Statutory Method" based (somewhat) on ability to pay, Finance Director Sean Mangano hatched a compromise.

For this upcoming Fiscal Year stay with the current method for 90% of the budget and the other 10% use the state's Statutory Method but with open space & tax exempt properties removed from the formula.

 1st slide:  School administrators wanted everyone to play nice

Under this scheme Amherst would stay at around a 2.5% increase next year while both Leverett and Pelham would pay a little more in order for Shutesbury to pay a little less ($25,000).

Superintendent Maria Geryk told them, ""We will do our part in making cuts, adapting to a long term structural deficiency.  I'm just hoping we can stay connected and working together."

The meeting did get heated at times with one member pointing out, "There’s always another alternative formula where you will pay less.  One town will always be in that position."

At the Four Towns Meeting two weeks ago Shutesbury presented an alternative method that simply reverted back to the Statutory Method, but phased in over the next four years (25% per year).

And they strongly suggested their Town Meeting could vote down the current method if the plan was not adopted.  That was met with a storm of sharp criticism from the other towns.

The subject of expanding the Region from the current 7-12 all the way down to PreK through 6th grade did come up, as some members believe it will save money.  But if Shutesbury votes no to reopening the Regional Agreement, the process is dead.

One member suggested helping Shutesbury by tweaking the funding formula should be tied to their support for passing Regionalization, even if they as a town do not wish to join the expanded Region.

All four Town Meetings will vote on the expanded Region this spring, and it takes unanimous approval to pass.  Two questions will be presented:  Should the Regional Agreement be reopened/amended for the sake of Regionalization, and 2) do you wish to join the expanded Region?

It's only the first question that requires unanimous approval, the second question does not.

As long as Amherst, who is 78% of the Region, approves along with at least one other town, the expanded Region is formed.  The remaining towns will simply stay on as part of the 7-12 Region.

Complicated?  You bet.

The Cost Of Competition

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School is located next door in Hadley with a new $10 million building expansion

Besides the half hearted threat from Shutesbury to create chaos with the funding mechanism for next year's Regional Budget by voting down the current assessment method, the other -- even more stunning -- thing to come out of the Four Towns meeting on Saturday was the negative impact Charter School competition will have on next year's budget.

FY2017 Charter Tuition projected increase is $493,650 as the number of Regional students attending Charter schools escalates by 10, going from the current 93 up to 103 at an average cost of around $20,000 each.

Last year total cost of Charter/Vocational/Choice students opting out of ARPS was $2.6 million; this coming year it is projected to increase to $3.1 million.

 Kathy Mazur, Sean Mangano, Maria Geryk at Four Towns meeting

The anticipated budget gap for a level services budget next year is $460,000 which is way better than the $900,000  gap we were looking at last year around this same time.

But that entire amount could be covered if we were not losing an additional $493,650 in Charter School payouts.

Superintendent Maria Geryk freely admitted to the Four Towns meeting that "Charter Schools are the driving force for our our budget going up."  And, she added ominously,  "The Charter cap statewide may be lifted.  If so, we will suffer."

Click to enlarge/read

Budget projected to increase 3.4%.  Amherst Finance Committee recommendation to town departments is max of 2.5%

The Nuclear Option

Shutesbury representatives dealing with a tough crowd

Well over half the 2.5 hour  "Four Towns Meeting" this morning consisted of sometimes vitriolic discussion of Shutesbury's self serving presentation requesting a change in the Regional Assessment formula from the current rolling five year average (equal cost per student) back to the state Statutory Method which uses a blend of voodoo based on property values, average income and aggregate wealth.

Simply put, the main difference is between perceived "ability to pay" versus the undeniable equity of everybody pays the exact same cost per students.  Thus the more students you have in the system the higher your costs.

And Shutesbury representatives were quick to admit that their costs are going up because of increased enrollments.

Outgoing Finance Director Sandy Pooler pointed out there are "Imperfections in statutory method measurement of wealth"

Response from the other three towns was downright testy ranging from a Pelham official branding it "really outrageous" to Leverett representative Kip Fonsh linking it to Shutesbury's lack of support for the expanded Regionalization from current grades 7-12 all the down to PreK:

"Context is everything.  The Regional Agreement has worked remarkably well over five decades. I'm profoundly distressed and disturbed over this presentation.  You failed to put forth the expanded Regional proposal that was four years in the making.  This past year all I’ve heard is lack of action on the part of Shutesbury to educate its citizens about how Regionalization would address their needs.  I have not heard a single positive thing!  Now I hear Michael DeChiara saying he would not support it.  If you don’t advertise, people will not come out.  This presentation represents a shift in the culture of the Region.  You have not lifted a finger for Regionalization.  That’s alarming." 

The four town school Region is bound by a 50+ year old Regional Agreement that requires a unanimous vote of all four Town Meetings to amend.  But only three of four are needed to pass the annual budget.

 Town reps were a mix of school committee, finance committee and select board

The Region has used the current equitable five year rolling average assessment method since 2008 and any method that differs from the state Statutory Method must also be approved by all four towns.

Every year since 2008 all four towns have passed a Town Meeting article calling for use of the alternative method to fund the Regional School Budget, and then the next article to pass would be their share of that budget.

So in other words little Shutesbury, with only 4% of the Region's population, can vote down the use of the more equitable method favored by the other 96% and that would then automatically switch financing back to the original statutory method.

Either way the proposed budget contribution of $19,539,329 from the four towns stays the same.

Of course at that point two other towns could then vote down the budget (which requires three-out-of-four to pass) because they dislike the extra increase in costs shifted to them.

Like Amherst for instance.  Under the current assessment method Amherst would pay $15,196,144  of the total budget of $19,539,329 a 2.5% increase over last year; but under the Statutory Method  Amherst would pay $15,465,851 an additional increase of $269,707 or a 4.3% increase over last year.

The Amherst Finance Committee has set guidelines for all town departments to keep budget increases to a maximum of 2.5%.

Shutesbury representatives did seem shell shocked by the universally hostile reaction to their budget eating Modest Proposal, and chances are they're only bluffing,  however:

Amherst Finance Committee Chair Kay Moran said the towns may want to think about creating two town budgets this year, one with each method. 

Turmoil In Public Education?

Merging Middle School into High School does not seem to be going well

The public schools can't seem to do anything right these days.

The "Hurricane Revisioning Summit" on Saturday unconvered overwhelming opposition to merging the Middle School into the High School for budgetary reasons and the Amherst School Committee recently backed away from voting on the administrations request for an expensive shiny new mega school. At least until January.

And the Regionalization expansion from grades 7-12 all the way down to kindergarten seems more and more unlikely -- especially since it only takes one town of the four to vote no.   Something Shutesbury seems destined to do.

On Halloween, appropriately enough, I published an exchange between Amherst Regional Middle School Principal Mendonsa and former teacher now parent of a child in the system Alfie Alschuler.  Since over 5,000 read the exchange I figured you would be interested in his follow up.

Let the conversation continue ...

Click to enlarge/read

Educational Point/Counterpoint

Amherst Public Schools are nothing if not colorful these days

With all that's going on with the Amherst Public School system -- new school, expanded regionalization, merging Middles School students into the High School, etc -- it's easy to forget teaching, that most basic function taking place in a classroom.

I found this exchange between a former ARMS teacher/parent and Principal Mendonsa interesting.

   Education Clash Of Ideas

There They Go Again

Katherine Appy (4th from rt), Vira Douangmany Cage (2nd from left)

The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee has been cited yet again by the Attorney General's office for violating the Open Meeting Law.

Or maybe I should say just Amherst School Committee Chair Katherine Appy was cited since the AG used the term "individual violation".

   School Committee Chair OML Violation

Interestingly the violation is a result of Ms. Appy thinking that Regional School Committee Chair Trevor Baptiste overstepped his bounds when he announced to the committee he was going into "mediation" with the NAACP over a "breach of contract" from a 1993 consent agreement.

Regional School Committee attorney Regina Tate thought no such breach occurred. 

That 20+ year old divisive issue related to discipline meted out to non white students at a higher rate than white students.  An old issue that apparently never seemed to go away.

Crossing The Educational Rubicon?

Superintendent Maria Geryk gets into testy exchange with a parent

The reorganization of the entire Amherst elementary public education program for at least the next 50 years drew a limited audience yesterday afternoon, at most a dozen-and-a-half concerned parents.

Maybe because, as school officials seem to think, busy parents are not paying attention; or maybe because they feel their input is only so much blah, blah, blah that allows school officials to check off a box in their search for state reimbursement.

For instance in response to my question about what happens if the School Committee votes "No" to the administration's wish for a new Mega-School to replace both Wildwood and Fort River, Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris said he would lock himself in his office the next day to come up with another plan.

Which of course means that going into the November 3rd School Committee meeting school administrators do not have a Plan B.

Another parent poninted out that no  figures have been presented to  show what it would cost simply to renovate or replace Wildwood. After all the endeavor is called, "Wildwood School Building Project".

Thus the School Committee is voting on the prefered option without facts and figures related to any of the other options. In other words a stacked deck.

If you're a betting person and want a really safe bet ... put your money on the Amherst School Committee voting yes to the "Education Plan" that requires a $20 million Debt Exclusion Override, or a $200/year increase in taxes on a median Amherst home for thirty years.

Whether the taxpayers of this town pass that Override question at the ballot box, however, is not nearly so certain.

Twitter profile

 Lead architect has good taste in musicals at least

Hurry Up & Wait

108,000 square foot, Wildwood Elementary School, built 1970, enrollment 412

For many parents with children in the Amherst public schools the "Wildwood School Study" only appeared on their radar recently.  Mainly because the name implies only the Wildwood Elementary School would be impacted and a lack of effective outreach from school officials.

But now of course everybody is aware that the "Reconfiguration" model is the preferred plan by administrators which means the new construction of a Mega-School that is really two schools in one.  Thus ailing Fort River is also impacted in the most major way possible.

As is Crocker Farm, which will go from preK-6 to only preK & 1st grade while the new Mega-School will handle all students grades 2-6.

The reason the administration wants to maximize the number of students in the new Mega-School is funding, as the state MSBA program will cover 58% of the cost (even though many people thought it would be as high as 68%).

 Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (rt) presenting to Wildwood Building Committee 10/15

At the most recent 10/15 Wildwood School Building Committee meeting Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris went through pretty much the same Powerpoint presentation he gave to the School Committee on 10/20.

All except the most important slide with the recommendation for the new Mega-School rather than simply renovating or replacing Wildwood at 40% less cost.

Since the construction of a Mega-School is  twice as tricky as constructing a regular sized school to replace Wildwood (or renovate it) I'm surprised the Wildwood Building Committee was not given a heads up at that 10/15 meeting.

Since it was less than a week away from the School Committee presentation obviously school administrators had by then made their major decision.

In other words, why not put the Mega-School plan on the table and let the Wildwood Building Committee vote on it before presentation to the School Committee?

Timeline for Mega School

According to the Timeline the School Building Committee does have to vote on the plan prior to submission to MSBA but now the die is cast in favor of a Mega-School.

Which is of course a LOT more expensive than simply replacing/renovating Wildwood alone at $12 million vs $20 million.  School officials have certainly failed to learn from history.

The original 6/14/94 Debt Exclusion Override to renovate the Amherst Regional High School passed Town Meeting and Select Board muster with ease, but failed at the ballot box by 73 votes the first time around, 1979 to 1907.

Less than six months later, after extensive public outreach, Town & School officials brought the Debt Exclusion Override back and it passed 2,786 to 2,161.

Interestingly we are still paying for the $26 million ARHS renovation from all those years ago as well as the $4 million Crocker Farm school renovations.

And the town is facing three other major building projects in the very near future: new South Fire Station & DPW building and the Jones Library expansion.

 

Current Town Debt

At the most recent Finance Committee meeting Sandy Pooler, Finance Director, said the new DPW building may come before Town Meeting this spring while the Mega-School will not be ready for a Town Meeting vote for a full year (fall 2016).

Thus there's an advantage for a project to come first, before sticker shock can set in. The problem comes for the project that goes 4th after the other three have been approved and town officials do the math on how much that's going to cost.

My biggest fear is the desperately needed new South Fire Station goes dead last.

High Cost Of Education In A College Town

Wildwood Elementary School

One important aspects of the major shake up proposed by school officials in the bricks and mortar make up of public education in our highly educated town is financial.  A burden of course that falls on the taxpayers, which includes ALL residents -- not just homeowners.

For instance the Massachusetts School Building Authority is financed directly out of the somewhat high 6.25% state sales tax.

Therefor renters in town who purchase goods and services pay into the MSBA budget.  And of course when property taxes go up landlords tend to pass that along via rent increases.

At $20.54/$1,000 Amherst already has one of the highest property tax rates in the entire state, ranked #14 out of 351.  Well over the nearby city of Northampton, ranked #158,  at $15.80/$1,000 or Hadley, the hardworking farm town next door, ranked #299 at $10.86/$1,000.

The statewide median average is $15.69/$1,000

 A $200/year tax increase could vault Amherst into the top ten in the state

Since the proposed funding mechanism is a "Debt Exclusion Override" it will require a two-thirds vote of Amherst Town Meeting, a majority vote of the Select Board to place it on the town ballot and a then majority approval of town voters, all before January 1st, 2017.

And the geriatric average age of Town Meeting could work against the proposal since most of the members no longer have children in the public schools.

The financial chart presented above is designed to show how fiscally responsible the proposal for a new mega-school is compared to the alternative at twice the amount.

But it's a tad disingenuous since it assumes Fort River would be renovated/replaced at 100% town taxpayer cost with Wildwood being renovated/replaced with a 50% reimbursement from MSBA.

And School Committee member Vira Douangmany Cage did point out last night that MSBA does pay for renovations short of complete overhauls via their "Major Repairs & Accelerated Repairs" programs, so if Fort River could be partially renovated with their assistance the overall cost would go down dramatically.

But there's no doubt consolidation saves money.  Last night Superintendent Maria Geryk once again cited the $850,000 cost savings that resulted from the bitterly contested closing of Mark's Meadow Elementary School on the UMass campus.  

Interestingly the Town & Schools had signed a five year "Strategic Partnership Agreement" with UMass in 2007 acknowledging the value of free use of Mark's Meadow.

UMass clearly stated they would return to the negotiation table should Mark's Meadow ever close, which of course it did prior to the ending of the five year contract, which is now three years overdo for signing.

Currently Amherst public schools are educating 56 children emanating from UMass tax exempt family housing at an average annual cost of just over $19,000 per student, or over $1 million.

 Click to enlarge/read

Yet UMass is now withholding the local option room tax at their Campus Center Hotel in an attempt to strong arm the town into signing a new Strategic Partnership that probably does not include reimbursement for the high education costs of their children.

So before Amherst taxpayers pass an Override for the schools they should require town officials get UMass to pay its fair share.

In addition the Select Board should show strong support for Representative Stephen Kulik's bill to require tax exempt institutions like Hampshire College (who pays the town nothing for AFD services) and Amherst College, who paid $130K this year, to pay 25% of their assessed value as a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes.