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Barrett Warns of Tight Budget, Tough TimesBy Tammy Daniels - June 11, 2008
iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS — Spiraling costs may mean drastic belt-tightening measures in the coming fiscal year, including four-day weeks for city employees and students.
It also led Mayor John Barrett III to veto a home-rule petition to provide at least some retroactive benefits to military veterans disabled while working for the city. The carefully crafted measure was rejected because "of the fiscal crisis facing the city," he informed the City Council by letter.
The city's $35.4 million budget is up barely 2 percent over last year, but two-thirds of the $675,000 increase is based on rising pension, insurance, public safety and, especially, energy costs.
With gasoline over $4 a gallon, the mayor warned the City Council that there was little "wiggle room" left as the city faced an extremely tight budget for a second year.
"I'm concerned. We have to start looking at things and doing things a little differently," he told the councilors as he presented the fiscal 2009 budget on Tuesday night. "Such as looking a four-day work week and a four-day school week because of escalation costs for buses [fuel costs covered in contracts] and solid waste [transportation].
"It's becoming very, very expensive for us to able to maintain services and keep it affordable for everybody."
There's not much room to raise more taxes either without running into Proposition 2 1/2. The property tax reform measure sets a levy limit on communities; going over it forces an override vote, that may or may not pass.
Just a few years ago, the city had a $1.5 million levy cushion. That's shrunk by some 75 percent to about $350,000 to $400,000.
The School Department took the biggest hit, Barrett said. With a $16.3 million budget, up less than a 1 percent over last year, the public schools will still see reductions in teaching staff, mostly through not filling open positions. It adds up to 7.5 teaching positions and 27 teacher's aides.
Barrett is discussing taking the state to court with several other mayors whose cities have been hit hard by the failure of Chapter 70 education aid to keep pace. The state school aid is up $85,000 but that's overshadowed by rising costs. The McCann Technical School assessment alone is $80,000.
"Our education costs are up $200,000, or nearly a third of the costs in the budget," said Barrett. "And even with that increase, it's like losing half-a-million dollars ... Charges for teachers' pensions and health-care costs mean that we basically ended up with a negative $161,000."
Charter schools "continue to kill us," he said, because of the funding formula. A student attending the Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School in Adams costs the city $13,500. However, the city spends $9,000 to educate the same student; school choice costs $5,000.
Barrett said the governor has failed to address the problem. Asked about charter school funding in the past, Gov. Deval Patrick has referred to the Readiness Project, a task force developing a 10-year strategic education plan. Its report will be revealed later this month but there is no indication how seriously its members looked at charter school funding reform.
The budget does provide for two more firefighters, hired in response to overtime costs. It also includes a raise of 2 percent on July 1 and one percent on Jan. 1 for certain non-union employees and by agreement for year with Teamsters 404 representing Department of Public Works employees.
Negotiations are ongoing with other city unions, Barrett said, and, hopefully, will go smoothly.
The good news is that the city's debt is down and so are interest rates. The mayor expects to submit a capital budget for new equipment. There are far fewer workers doing more responsibilities so "we need better equipment, especially in Public Works," he said.
But that's the only good news — the city has some tough times ahead.
"I'm very, very concerned," said Barrett. "Some communities are worse off ... but I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel."
The council also:
- Approved the sale of a small parcel of land taken by eminent domain to Arch Street LLC, which is renovating the former Clark Biscuit Mill into affordable housing, for $3,700. The council also approved with minor amendments an agreement with Arch Street protecting the city from any lawsuits stemming from the land taking. The sale is expected to close Thursday.
- Approved the agreement with the Teamsters.
- Accepted the budget and referred it to the Finance Committee, which will meet Tuesday, June 17, at 1 p.m.
Councilor Gailanne Cariddi, who crafted what she hoped was a compromise on the home-rule petition, said she wasn't completely surprised by the mayor's veto. "We did what the council had to do and he did what the mayor has to do."
"The main focus of the council now is to work on the budget and to successfully complete the process," she said. The veterans' benefit will be shelved for the moment. |
| i think they should close down the greylock school and make what kids they have go to brayton school ! .close down the midlle school and send them all to dury high this too would save some more money on fuel for heat alone on both schools .close down the older school s there a waste of heat any way .just a thought ! | | from: fran | on: 06-14-2008 |
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"The main focus of the council now is to work on the budget and to successfully complete the process," she said. The veterans' benefit will be shelved for the moment.
override the veto..... | | from: ctrem | on: 06-12-2008 |
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| Julie, Thank you for correcting Major Barretts math and complaints | | from: Satisfied NA Parent | on: 06-12-2008 |
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I think the NA school system should be experimenting with their laptop program and remote classrooms while there is still time. Before such drastic measures as closing down a building are looked at, a pilot program could be created and evaluated right here in town or even the county.
It could be a good chance for the traditional schools to work with the charter schools as well and possibly take advantage of the "best practices" and teacher resources from all schools. | | from: CJ Vadnais | on: 06-12-2008 |
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| the fact is that north adams doesn't have the number of students it once had. the school committee should be focusing on how to handle the situation and get a long term plan in place for the day when the situation gets so bad that we have to be reactive instead of proactive. i think a couple of school closings is needed soon to bring costs in line. | | from: ctrem | on: 06-12-2008 |
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Let me address two myths that you mention:
1: Charter school teachers must be Highly Qualified (defined by the No Child Left Behind legislation), which is true of all public school teachers. They must also meet at least the requirements for initial certification in Massachusetts. That is the minimum in the other public schools, as well.
2: You mention that your son doesn't have a chance of getting into the charter school. Why is that the case? There are open seats right now. The lottery process is if there are more children than seats available - it is the fairest selection process that could be defined. But I know for a fact that there are seats available now, since the charter school opened up more seats in the middle school to meet the demand that was presenting itself. Call 743-7311 to find out more.
Finally, you mention that charter schools have wrecked the education system across the country. Every state has different laws regarding charters. Some states are far more permissable than others - so it is not appropriate to lump all charters together. Massachusetts is heralded as having one of the best charter school accountability systems in place. | | from: Julia Bowen | on: 06-11-2008 |
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Mr. Flagg you raise an interesting point, however I would guess that those without any kids aren't in favor of paying for education, at either school, that they can't take advantage of.
The difference in educational requirements of the teaching staff does need to be addressed. If charter schools are going to receive money that would have gone to traditional schools, then their teachers education requirements should be equivalent.
So far no one has stated whether the increase in the length of the school day has any effect on the school budget. Also if any grant money was received because of an increase in the total number of hours in the school year, does going to a four day week mean the lose of the grant money? | | from: Barbara | on: 06-11-2008 |
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It is a travesty in the first place that our budget is affected by a charter school that most parents were not in favor of in the first place. The selection process alone shows us that while we help pay for that school most of us don't stand a chance at getting our children in. It's interesting to me that we are losing educators from the public sector on a regular basis due to budget constraints and even have to consider consolidating schools that have existed here for decades.
While the budget issues run much deeper than just schools I find it very troublesome that our public schools have to suffer teacher losses but anyone with a Bachelor's Degree in their respective field can teach in a charter school.
These charter schools have ruined education around the country. You can go online and read stories from across America that talk about the same things I discussed here. Whether it's $13,000 or $7,000 it's our money and we should have the right to say whether it goes to my son's elementary school or some charter school who would not consider letting him in the first place. | | from: Brian Flagg | on: 06-11-2008 |
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While I am sympathetic to North Adams' budget woes, I need to correct the information about charter school tuition rates provided by Mayor Barrett.
Tuition for charter schools is calculated each year based on the average cost to serve students at the sending district schools. So the discrepancy between what North Adams pays to educate their students and what we, the charter school, receive cannot be what he describes. Additionally, the state reimburses the district for a significant portion of the tuition costs.
With this calculation described above, North Adams is not "losing" $13,500 per student who goes to BArT; the net cost is closer to $7,600.
Please see the MA DOE website for details:
http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/charter/charter08_rates_mar.html
and http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/charter/calculation.html
| | from: Julia Bowen | on: 06-11-2008 |
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