Our budget and our needs–
In the next few weeks, I’ll continue to knock on doors and meet neighbors but also I will be writing regularly about ideas I have for the Melrose Public Schools. This week I’ll discuss one of the most common issues I hear when I meet people at their door.
First, our school budget. As you may know, the School Year 23-24 budget has a current $2.76M gap in it. Many think this could grow to as much as $3M. If it went unfunded, the gap would mean the School Committee would need to cut that amount from the $47M total school budget. The current plan is to fill this gap in the middle of the year with so-called Free Cash, which will take approval of the new Mayor and City Council.
What does this all mean? We have a fractured budget made of many pieces, leaving instability and confusion about what the future holds for our schools. This is not how to build a strong school system.
Over the last 3 years, many of the cost increases in the budget have been driven by increasing transportation costs and out-of-district special education tuitions. This was accentuated by a state decision to allow special education schools to increase their tuition by up to 14% in a single year. This likely will mean at least a $500K increase for Melrose.
People often ask me, “why are we paying for transportation? I thought we didn’t have buses for Melrose schools?” That's right, but we are now sending more than 50 of our children to schools that have specialized programs for those who need it, when historically we had been closer to 40 or fewer. The transportation for these children is very expensive and is often individualized because of the specific needs or placement. We are above the state average in kids who receive an education out of the district and those educations are getting far more expensive.
This should be a real area of focus for our school committee. We need to assess what is driving families to make this difficult decision to leave. Then, we should plan, develop, and implement programs to meet as many student needs here in Melrose as we can effectively build.
In addition, we also need to make sure that the experience of accessing special education services is straightforward, accommodating, and inviting. We should have easily accessible information for families to guide them on how Melrose evaluates students, who to contact at your school, what to expect, and even success stories, as I know there are many here. We need to make sure our special education program is staffed with enough people to handle all of this and to make the experience as smooth as possible for every family.
Most of all, we need to keep the students and families at the center of our decision-making. Our search for budget controls and improvements should never be at the cost of students and the growth of learning and access.
This won’t be the only area we’ll need to find solutions for in the budget but it does appear to be the fastest growing need. Undoubtedly, we are seeing a growth in special needs related to the pandemic and we should keep in mind how recent and impactful that was to many students. As I continue to write about this and other topics, follow along at my website: www.ElectMattHartman.com.
