Conference 7.286::maynard

Re .0:

I don't understand.  _Why_ did these Maynard students get accepted?  What
agreement, if any, was reached?  In fact, what prompted them (or their
parents) to apply?

A few more detaiuls might be helpful.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    The new law just passed this year, which I believe is called the school
    choice law, allows any student to attend any school in this state
    providing the schools have openings.  The tuition is paid to the
    receiving school out of the chapter 70 funds from the students resident
    scholl district.  In this case Maynard students who wish to go to Acton
    must apply to the openings Acton has established in their schools.  When
    they are accepted Maynard must pay Acton out of the money Maynard
    receives from the state.  The problem is Maynard receives $750.00 per
    student from the state and Acton's tuition is between $4000.00 and
    $5400.00.  These figures I got from the Beacon.  So every student going
    to Acton from Maynard takes away several thousand dollars away from
    Maynard's state aid.  
    
    If there is anyone else who knows more about this law then I do, please
    correct me.

    Don't get me wrong, I AGREE WITH YOU, but I read the same article in
    the Beacon you did and was wondering something.
    
    Does Maynard receive $750 per student for each student in the school
    system or only $750 per student that takes advantage of the "school
    choice" law.
    
    I agree that this will severly impact Maynard (and other towns as
    well).  Like you, I am interested in learning more about the specifics
    of the law.
    
    Sure sounds unfair to me
    

    $750 per student for each student in the Maynard school system.
    This is part of the moneies we get on the Cherry sheet each year.
    
    So what the school choice law does is takes the $750/student away plus
    the difference of what it cost to send the student to the other school.
    If the state just took the $750 away it would not be so bad it would
    be like a drop in school enrollment. 
    
    What I see is the poorer school seems are going to get poorer and the
    richer school system get richer. IS THIS EQUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL.
    
    art 

re .4 - Thanks for the clarification

Just curious...  Has anyone from outside of Maynard chosen to attend the
schools in Maynard this upcoming school year?

As of yesterday the count was up to 65.  Some may not agree with me, but I think
a certain percentage of the students attending Acton, is due in part to the lack
of transportation available to the Maynard students.  If parents are already
required to drive their kids to school, why not drive the extra five minutes to
Acton?  Especially after hearing all the negative publicity aimed at the Maynard
school system during the past year.

I wonder how those residents in Acton who voted down regionalization now feel 
about their property values and so on, with 65+ Maynard kids attending their 
school system?

This whole law is a sham.  True school choice would open up the private schools
to the public as well, but would never happen with the Brahmin from Cambridge 
at the helm.

					Steve

    The Maynard school committee has not yet voted. An I think its to late
    for themto vote.
    
    
    

.6> As of yesterday the count was up to 65.  Some may not agree with me, but I

Here's the count: 69 Maynard students applied to Acton.  53 new students
were accepted.  5 Maynard students were tuitioned into Acton from previous
years, so the total is 58 Maynard students in Acton this Fall.  Acton has
closed their enrollment.

Acton hasn't set the tuition rate yet, so we don't know what this will cost 
us, but the estimates are that the K-6 tuition is about $4800 (15 kids), and
7-12 tuition is about $5800 (43 kids).  That yields a total of $321,400. 

Maynard's State Rep., Hasty Evans of Wayland, and Arthur Chase of Worchester
are planning to file an amendment to change the method of funding School 
Choice.  The proposal I've heard is that the parents would pay tuition,
depending on their income, and the State would pay the rest, for next year.

Despite the fact that only 11 school districts in the state have adopted
School Choice, the Weld Administration is feeling very warm and cheery about 
it.  I know someone who called Weld's office this morning to complain about
what it was doing to Maynard's budget, and he was told that there had been
almost no complaints.

If you really don't like money being taken away from your kids so that Acton
can benefit, you could get on the phone and tell Mr. Weld what you think.

It's interesting that when Stow rejected School Choice, they mentioned the
fact that they really didn't want to raid Maynard's budget.

.7>    The Maynard school committee has not yet voted. An I think its to late
.7>    for themto vote.

No, the Maynard School Committee will vote this Thursday whether to accept
the School Choice law or not.  The decision would mean whether the Maynard
Schools are willing to raid other towns for their kids and their money; we
have no control over whether somebody else raids us. 

Thursday's School Committee agenda is pretty heavy.  The meetings are
in the High School library.  It starts with an executive session (a private
meeting), likely until 7:15 or 7:30.  Then they go on to ...

      - the Christmas parade
      - School Choice
      - discussion of deferral of teachers' summer salaries.  I. e.,
	bookkeeping games - which fiscal year the summer salaries are in.
      - lunch program
      - busses
      - Green Meadow daily hours
      - acceptance of a gift (Digital is funding math teacher training, and
	providing DEC employees to substitute for the teachers)
      - interactive TV - Univ. of Lowell courses by cable TV
      - subcommittee appointments
      - reinstate some positions as part-time
      - athletic fees

Steve

The idea is not that 'richer towns get richer and poorer towns get 
poorer".     The idea is that people gravitate to what they perceive 
are better schools systems (no rathole, I said 'perceive as better').     
A 'poorer' town could have a great school system if that is what they 
chose to invest in, and thus have an influx of students from other towns.   

To educate a Maynard pupil in Maynard, the town pays X and the state 
pays Y.     The reason the state takes the full tuition amount out of 
the state funds is to guarantee that the towns who take the students 
will get their money.   Otherwise, the state would pay the receiving 
school (say Stow) the $Y money, and Stow would have to charge Maynard 
the $X money.    This way, it is just one transfer.  The school budget 
still goes down by X + Y.      

Yes, it probably costs us more than X+Y, since the places they are 
going are probably more expensive than our cost per pupil.  The above 
was just the theory of it.


It sounds as if people are suprised by this situation.    I remember 
hearing all about it during the debate, that if the town didn't pass
regionalization, the school might well go bankrupt since kids would
choice-out (but then it would be kid-by-kid, and the town would have
no vote in the school systems they attended, and they would be split up
among different towns). 

Am I missing something here?

Does a parent who enrolls a student in a school system with a higher
tuition cost (than their own town's) have to pay the difference -- or does
the town pick up the tab?

                   Town A       Town B
Tuition            1,000         2,000
Chapter 70           500           700
Student Cost       1,500         2,700
Parent's Outlay    1,000<-+      2,200<-+  (or is it 1,000???)
                          +-Taxes       +- Taxes + Student Cost Difference

I'm getting the impression that it is the latter - which *is* robbery.

- dave

    I find it somewhat interesting that Acton chose not to regionalize with
    Maynard but did vote to accept the "School Choice" program.  It is
    obvious, at least to me, that if Acton voted for "School Choice" that a
    large number of Maynard students would apply since Maynard did vote to
    approve regionalization.
    
    Does anyone know if any students other than from Maynard have been
    accepted by Acton under the "school choice" program?

re -.2

My understanding is that the parent pays no money in this.  The whole 
point is that students have equal access to schools.   If a parent had 
to pay extra money, then more expensive school systems would not be 
open to less-affluent families, and thus defeat the purpose of equal 
access.    

The giving town pays the whole per-pupil tuition to the receiving town
(by this amount being deducted from the state aid), regardless of
whether the receiving town's per-pupil charge is more or less than the
sending town's per pupil cost. 


re -.1 

It's pretty easy to see why a town might say no to regionalization and 
yes to open enrollment.     With open enrollment, they get the extra 
kids to fill up the classrooms, and thus to help defer their 
fixed-costs.   They do not give up any of the decision making power as 
they would have if they regionalized.     

it's straight capacity planning - if their student population rises, 
they take in less kids from outside; if their student population 
falls, they take in more kids to cover the fixed costs.   

    More questions regarding "School Choice"...
    
    If a school elects to admit students under the "school choice" program
    this year must they they admit this student "forever" (either until the
    student graduates from the school system or elects to no longer
    attend).  Or, can they change their mind from year to year.
    
    With this being a new program in the state I would imagine that some
    systems would have second thoughts after they have tried it for a year.
    
    Specifically, if a student goes to Acton next year under the school
    choice program are they assured that they can complete there education
    there or might they find themselves back in the Maynard school system
    after next year if Acton drops "school choice".
    
    It seems to me that no matter how "good or bad" a school system is,
    stability is a key factor.  What kind of an education will a student
    get if they are shuffled from school system to school system each year?

Proper ethics would require that a student who was accepted by another town or
city would have first "dibs" at those available slots the following year.  As
much as I'm against this law as it is currently written, you would hope this 
would be the case, for the child's sake.  

However, I'd like to further the point made in .12.  Let's say that the town of
Acton had 10 openings in grade 5, which are then filled by "students of choice".
During the course of the year a housing development is built adding an influx of
students at that age level.  The following year (grade 6) the "students of
choice" would then be required to either, (a)return to their home town school,
(b)go to school in Holliston (the closest town opting for school choice), or (c)
attend private school, unless Acton agreed to increase their class sizes or
expand their building capacity.  

Why am I not surprised Acton is the only town in Middlesex County to approve of
school choice...

This school choice law is the Robin Hood theory in reverse, as it is currently 
written.  It's no wonder only 11 of 453 cities/towns in the state have approved 
it.

					Steve

It needs to be pointed out here:

>>    I find it somewhat interesting that Acton chose not to regionalize with
>>    Maynard but did vote to accept the "School Choice" program.

This is not quite true.  The Acton school committee strongly supported
regionalization, but regionalization was voted down by the town meeting.  The
Acton school committee later decided to accept the school choice program, with
NO CONSULTATION of the town meeting.  The school committee is being quite
consistent in its voting.

I have a feeling that, if school choice were to have come before the town
meeting for a vote, it would have been voted down; I know a number of people
who are against Acton's participation in the program.

This misconception (apparently held by some editorial writer at the Maynard
Beacon), coupled with misconceptions about the regionalization vote, can only
serve to increase tensions between the towns.

I'd also like to point out that Acton currently has a fairly large number of
tuition students.  Deciding to turn down school choice would have meant
dropping (over time) those students, and, yes, that source of revenue.  Yes,
the plan is flawed, but that isn't Acton's fault, and the school committee had
good reasons to decide the way they did.

-- Brian (from Acton; I voted in favor of regionalization, and I think the
school choice program is horribly flawed, but I also like to understand other
people's point of view)

.9> The idea is that people gravitate to what they perceive 
.9> are better schools systems (no rathole, I said 'perceive as better').     

Let me see if I understand your point.  Suppose there were a state Trash
Choice law.  Maynard has trash pickup once a week.  Suppose there were
another nearby town which had trash pickup twice a week, at twice the cost.
And that other town's Board of Health had accepted the Trash Choice law,
so they could raid other towns, at the price they set.

Then you could get twice a week pickup, and you just say that it's too bad
Maynard didn't invest in their trash pickup properly, and everybody
else in town has to pay for your decision.

What *really* gets me about this is that Town Meeting no longer matters,
the individual board (School or Health) no longer matters, since you,
the individual can hire out your trash or your kid at whatever cost
the service provider charges.  You don't have to worry about setting
the town budget out of balance, you just say "well, I've got mine,
I gravitated toward what I wanted, now the rest of you pay for it".

For years, the state aid to schools was biased toward providing the
less wealthy schools more financial help.  Forget that theory!
If Lincoln accepted choice, they could extract about $7000 per kid from us.
Other systems go up to about $10K.
    
.11>    Does anyone know if any students other than from Maynard have been
.11>    accepted by Acton under the "school choice" program?

Acton opened up 100 spaces, and Maynard kids were accepted in 58, so, yes,
students from other towns have been accepted in Acton.  

-Steve

You will notice that I wrote both of my notes with no personal bias at 
all.   I simply explained what I understand the law to be.  I neither 
endorsed nor condemned the law, just shed some light.    I never used 
'I' or 'you', I used third person.    

I did this because I refuse to get into a mud-slinging, emotional 
arguments like regionalization deteriorated to.   

--------------------
>.9> The idea is that people gravitate to what they perceive 
>.9> are better schools systems (no rathole, I said 'perceive as better').     
>
>Let me see if I understand your point.  

*I* was not making any point at all.   That is waht I understand the 
intent of those behind the law to be.  

--------------------
>and you just say that it's too bad
>Maynard didn't invest in their trash pickup properly, 

I never said that Maynard did not invest in it's schools.  
 
--------------------
> you just say "well, I've got mine,
> I gravitated toward what I wanted, now the rest of you pay for it".

I never said nor implied any of those things.   

--------------------

It is obvious you do not agree with the law.    Do not strike out at 
me because I presented the facts of the law as I understand them.  I 
never stated whether I support the law or not.  

			A note from the co-moderator

This is just a reminder - Please let us not get into "mud-slinging" in this 
conference.  As with the regionalization note, I get the feeling that this 
note has a lot of emotion behind it.  Please let us keep it civil.

Julian Parker - co-moderator

My understanding is that a student who has been accepted this year will go 
back into a lottery next year.  It is entirely possible then for a student
to not attend their choice school next year.

Can anyone confirm this?

    What makes me mad about this school choice law is how it hurts Maynard. 
    After all the regionalization problems last year, all the Maynard
    residents were starting to support the school system.  The choice
    law is making it  more difficult for our school system function at
    the same level because of the lose of funds.  This is a time when our
    school system needs to be increasing it's spending not losing money.  
    
    What can we do about it?  First of all, we all need to vote for the
    override in Sept..  Next we should start looking at fy93 and look what
    funds Maynard needs to function.  We should be planning an override for
    next May's town meeting.  Until the tax laws change Maynard should plan
    on an override question every year and not just for level funding.  Our
    schools do not need level funding they need increased funding.  

Re .20:

    >What can we do about it?  First of all, we all need to vote for the
    >override in Sept..  Next we should start looking at fy93 and look what
    >funds Maynard needs to function.  We should be planning an override for
    >next May's town meeting.  Until the tax laws change Maynard should plan
    >on an override question every year and not just for level funding. 

An override is "forever"; they don't lapse at the end of the year.

I doubt the tax laws will change significantly, FWIW.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

.17> You will notice that I wrote both of my notes with no personal bias at 
.17> all.   I simply explained what I understand the law to be.  I neither 
.17> endorsed nor condemned the law, just shed some light.    I never used 
.17> 'I' or 'you', I used third person.    

I started out responding to your note .17, but then I departed to a generic
'you', without making the difference clear.  Sorry, I didn't mean to beat on
you; I should have said it like so... 

~Then one could get twice a week pickup, and one could say that it's too bad
      ^^^                                    ^^^
... to make the point that I was talking about someone who opts for the 
hypothetical trash choice law, as an analogy to school choice.  My intent was
to talk about political theory, and to focus on the blatant unfairness of the
School Choice law, not to get personal.  Sorry. 

More than anything, my anger is aimed at the legislature for imposing this
undemocratic scheme on us, and especially Mr. Weld.  Bulger, I'm not surprised.

.18> This is just a reminder - Please let us not get into "mud-slinging" in
.18> this conference. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Do I get the idea that Julian getting experienced at 
cooling down people who are incensed at the School Choice law?  (Not that I 
have any first hand knowledge if Cindy Parker's opinion... though I could 
make a guess, and maybe not be too far wrong...) 

.19> My understanding is that a student who has been accepted this year will go 
.19> back into a lottery next year.  It is entirely possible then for a student
.19> to not attend their choice school next year.
.19> 
.19> Can anyone confirm this?

It's entirely up to the school system.  The state Dept. of Ed. sent out a 
paper saying that the admittance scheme is up to the receiving school 
system, as long as it does not discriminate in any way.  They specifically 
said that the school system could decide to admit any previous tuition 
students, or choose to impose an admittance procedure on everyone from 
out-of-system, year to year.

Acton decided to let in their previous tuition students, and then have a 
lottery for everyone else.  Presumably, a lottery is not discriminatory.

And next year, they could change the scheme, or the quotas.  

Acton resident Brian brings up the point that ...

.15> I'd also like to point out that Acton currently has a fairly large number
.15> of tuition students.  Deciding to turn down school choice would have
.15> meant dropping (over time) those students, and, yes, that source of
.15> revenue. 

Income is a real concern; it has to be.  In addition, the way the choice law
is written, a School Committee cannot say "we think the School Choice law is
unethical; we intend to keep admitting out-of-system students at full tuition
as we have in the past."  They can either say yes, and accept new tuition
students under the choice law, or say no, and only keep their current tuition
students, plus their siblings, which means losing the tuition income in a
short number of years. 

The thing is, tuition costs the parents money...

.12> My understanding is that the parent pays no money in this.  The whole 
.12> point is that students have equal access to schools.   

That is the intent of school choice, and it has real merit.  But how do you
write a good school choice law without somebody getting screwed?  The state
doesn't exactly have deep pockets these days, and the Weld/Bulger alliance
is formidable.

Another point in .15 to clear up a muddy aspect of this is...

.15> The Acton school committee later decided to accept the school choice
.15> program, with NO CONSULTATION of the town meeting.  The school committee
.15> is being quite consistent in its voting. 

.15> I have a feeling that, if school choice were to have come before the town
.15> meeting for a vote, it would have been voted down; I know a number of
.15> people who are against Acton's participation in the program. 

.15> This misconception (apparently held by some editorial writer at the Maynard
.15> Beacon), coupled with misconceptions about the regionalization vote, can
.15> only serve to increase tensions between the towns. 

I recall the Beacon editorial, which assumes a monolithic Acton where everyone
thinks and acts in lockstep.  What strikes me about recent events in Acton 
politics is very much the opposite:  there used to be much more agreement
between the boards and the public.  For example, there is a committee to push
the overrides which works all year to get everybody to buy in, and it has 
achieved consistent success.  From what I hear, there has not been much
contention at the Acton Town Meeting since a leash law controversy in past
years.  At this year's meeting, the public disagreed with the school committee
so much, that they wouldn't even renew the existence of the regionalization
committee, to prevent them from talking to anyone else about regionalization! 

And now they're airing the Acton administrator's dirty laundry in lawsuits and
in the newspapers.  You should see all the letters in today's Acton Beacon
about this.

Of course, different groups of people show up to vote at the ballot and at
town meeting, but there is some chance that this portends change in the Acton
and A/B School Committees, in opinion or in membership.  It is impossible to
predict how the Acton school committees will vote on school choice next year,
or what choice law they will be voting on.

-Steve

    
    I was asked to read this note and it's replies to get a perspective
    from a community that was losing a large number of students. As a
    School Committee member in a community that has chosen choice (one
    fallacy corrected - Acton is not the only Middlesex County community
    to accept choice - I'm on the Holliston School Committee) I must state
    that every School Committee member (in many communities) I've talked to
    agree that the law is flawed and is working hard to correct it. I think
    one of the replies here that talked about the loss of revenue from
    private tuitions is very accurate. It made a large difference in our
    vote. Holliston would have potentially lost over $250K in revenue by
    turning it down and our per pupil cost (we set our tuition at per pupil
    cost) is less than the state average. It was a struggle for each member
    of our committee to come to a decision but we are elected to serve our
    community and to do what we believe is in the best interest of the
    children of our community. 

    Think of it as unequal education from the state. They state pays a
    Maynard family only $800 to educate there child in Maynard, But
    pays $5000 to educate the same child in Acton. Is this fair the state
    should pay each family who has a child in school in the Maynard school
    system $4400 this is fair.
    
    art

    
    I am assuming that the 150 students you expect to go to Acton/Boxboro
    are all high school regular ed students. 
    
    The Per Pupil Cost at Acton/Boxboro High School is $5,209. The PPC
    at Maynard High School is $6,033. Maynard must pay to A/B $781,350
    for students that Maynard would have spent $904,950 on. That leaves
    an additional $123,600 that Maynard can spend on it's remaining
    students that it couldn't do so with previously. After all the 
    bellyaching I've heard I was surprised to learn that Maynard's
    PPC at the High School is higher than at A/B. Maynard is actually
    saving money on this deal.
    

Well, I'm not suprised that the cost per pupil is higher in Maynard, for
reasons that I'll get into, but I don't for a minute believe that Maynard
will save money on the transaction.

When a student leaves the Maynard school system, the Maynard school system
does not save the full $6k per pupil cost.  A lot of fixed expenses are in
that $6k; that money isn't saved -- it still has to be paid, but is spread
over a smaller population, driving the per pupil cost even higher.  I'm sure
that's the reason that Maynard's per pupil expenditure seems so high --
declining enrollment that means there are less pupils to spread the fixed
expenses around.

Mike, you seem to be the expert on the $ figures, perhaps you can set me
straight.  Are only VARIABLE expenses included in the per pupil numbers?  

Clay

First off, I'm surprised as well that MHS has a higher PPC than ABRHS.  I could
have sworn I read that information some time ago and saw the relationship the
other way.  Apparently I was mistaken.  Thanks for providing the information.

However, I wouldn't assume that the Maynard students going to Acton are all
going to ABRHS.  This is not true.  There were students at several of the
various grade segments.

Based on the data you posted in the MASSACHUSETTS conference (notes
1017.53-.54, for those interested), Maynard and Acton stack up as follows:

>>The breakdown by level is for regular day only. The total average
>>column includes Regular day, SPED, Bilingual, and Occupational.

                                                             |Reg day|Total
    Reg Day   |K        |Elementary |Middle     |High        |Avg    |Avg 
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Maynard   |$1,812   |$2,925(1-4)|$4,600(5-8)|$6,033(9-12)|$3,959 |$4,663 |
    Acton     |$2,095   |$4,473(1-6)|           |            |       |$4,711 |
    Acton/Box |         |           |$4,946(7-8)|$5,209(9-12)|       |$5,571 |

Acton has a substantially higher per-pupil cost at the elementary level than
Maynard.  The middle school PPC is slightly higher in A/B as well.

						Brian

I'm pretty sure that School Choice funding is based on tuition cost, PPC --
and I'm also pretty sure that the state sets (or at least blesses) the tuitions
set by each school system.

Putting aside philosophical problems with school choice, the biggest problem
with it this year is the lousy implementation (which comes from a poorly
written law).  All funding for school choice comes from Chapter 70 funds.
Chapter 70 is in the budget as "anticipated funds".  When the school
administration set this year's budget (back 6 months ago probably), it had
to estimate what Chapter 70 would bring in.   The budget is now set, and
umpteen students are heading elsewhere taking the anticipated Chapter 70
money with them.   This is the main reason why the school is up in arms
over this.

Ask Mr. Weld and Mr. Bulger this: What if you deplete a town's Chapter 70
funding?  Who pays for it then?

- dave

    
    I don't have the numbers for students going to Acton vs. ABRHS but
    everything I've read in the paper points to the large majority being
    HS students. I'll leave the real figures for the members of MSC to
    give you.
    
    How is Per Pupil Cost calculated? Good question. The formula is
    as follows:
    
    	Operating expenditures divided by FTE pupil membership.
    
    
    Operating expenditures include Administration (4.4%),
    Instruction(67.8%), Pupil Services (2.4%), Transportation (4.9%),
    Plant Maintenance (11.7%), and fixed charges (8.8%). The percentages
    are the state wide averages from the 1988/89 school year. Instruction
    includes Supervision, Principals, Teachers, Textbooks, Libraries,
    Guidance, and Psychologists. Pupil Services includes Attendance,
    Health, Food, Athletics, and Student body activities. At the end of
    each fiscal year each school district is required to submit a balance
    sheet to the state. It is the total expenditures from this report
    that is used most often to calculate Per Pupil Cost. You also have to
    remember that when school committees set their tuitions it is from
    the PPC for a school year 2 years ago (IE the tuition for 1991-92
    is based on PPC from the state report for 1989-90 school year. That's
    the last one available.) I've yet to see PPC go down from year to year.
    
    The full time equivalent membership figure is derived this way to
    account for shifts in programs and in the movement of kids. It isn't
    very often that the number of kids you start with in September is the
    same as the number you end with in June. There is a very complicated 
    formula that basically uses the average daily attendance to come up
    with this figure. When breaking down program and level figures the
    same formula is used. 
    
    The program figures are broken down by Regular day, Special needs,
    Bilingual, and Occupational day. In 1988-89 75.2% of the cost went to 
    Regular day, 15.8% to Special needs, 2.8% to bilingual, and 6.2%
    to Occupational day. The regular day costs are broken down by level
    (K, Elementary, Middle, High). The SPED costs are broken down by
    prototype and seperate totals are given for in-school costs and
    out of district private school placements. Bilingual costs are 
    broken down by level. Occupational day costs are broken down by
    program (IE Agriculture, Distributive, Technical, Cosmetology,
    Health, Construction, Repair/Maint.). The 1989-90 report included
    a listing of each town with the total cost of education (including
    assessments for regional districts), the FTE number of pupils in
    that town and the average expenditure per pupil. 
    
     

    
    The notion that budgets are set is not one I buy. If I budget enough
    money to supply 16 customers with widgets and I lose 6 customers then I 
    reduce my budget. I will grant that the use of pure per pupil cost to
    achieve a tuition figure is clearly flawed. However, every school has
    basically the same structure it is required to fund. The fixed costs
    that exist in school A also exist in school B. I would like to see the
    transportation costs removed from the formula if there is no change in
    the law regarding responsibility for transportation. There also appears
    to be very little discussion here about the cost of SPED programs. A 
    system that operates certain SPED programs inhouse has a great
    advantage over other systems under this plan. 
    

There are couple of points entered by Mike Gilbert, of the Holliston School
Committee, which I'd like to address.

.25>    I am assuming that the 150 students you expect to go to Acton/Boxboro
.25>    are all high school regular ed students. 

It's not 150 students, the number is 58, as I said in reply .8 - 15 kids from
Maynard K-6 are going to Acton and 43 kids from Maynard 7-12 are going to
Acton/Boxboro.  Thus, the arithmetic below is wrong. 

.25>    The Per Pupil Cost at Acton/Boxboro High School is $5,209. The PPC
.25>    at Maynard High School is $6,033. Maynard must pay to A/B $781,350
.25>    for students that Maynard would have spent $904,950 on. That leaves
.25>    an additional $123,600 that Maynard can spend on it's remaining
.25>    students that it couldn't do so with previously. 

So we gain money in the deal?  There are a couple of bugs in this reasoning.
One is suggested by Gilbert in his reply .29, where he describes what goes into
the per pupil expenses: 

.29>     Operating expenditures include Administration (4.4%),
.29>    Instruction(67.8%), Pupil Services (2.4%), Transportation (4.9%),
.29>    Plant Maintenance (11.7%), and fixed charges (8.8%). The percentages

... etc. etc...

The point is, if you take a kid, and $5800 out of the schools, you don't reduce
the heating cost, or the principal's salary.  If you lose enough kids you might
boot a teacher, but often, you just can't do that, especially at the high
school level, because you have to offer the major subjects. 

On the other side, Acton and Holliston win bigtime because of this.  They get
students from the neighboring communities, so they have more students to
spread the heating cost, and the principal's salary.  They can decide how many
kids they want to let in, so they don't have to add teachers or build an
addition, unless they decide to increase the quota accordingly.  Nice for
them. 

.25>    Maynard is actually
.25>    saving money on this deal.

No.  We won't gain money by kids going to Acton.  We lose.  Mike, do you
honestly think we save money from having school choice forced on us?

The other bug in Gilbert's reasoning is that there is no guarantee that last
year's per pupil expense figures will predict the future.  Acton has yet to set
a tuition rate.

.29>    I don't have the numbers for students going to Acton vs. ABRHS but
.29>    everything I've read in the paper points to the large majority being
.29>    HS students. I'll leave the real figures for the members of MSC to
.29>    give you.

See .8, as I mentioned above.  My wife is on the Maynard School Committee.

-Steve

    
    Steve,
    	Thanks for the information on number of kids. The amount of the per
    pupil cost in any community that is associated with functions not
    directly related to educating (IE Maintenance, Administration, etc) is
    directly related to the philosophy of the school committee and the size
    of the school system. Is it possible for Maynard to make out in this
    situation? Only time will really tell. I was speaking hypothetically
    based on assumptions I've seen elsewhere. Holliston may or may not
    make out well. There are risks involved in accepting this program. We
    still have to go to town meeting and get our budget approved. In an
    open town meeting format I can easily envision a lower appropriation
    of town funds based on our so called windfall from school choice. 
    Whether or not Maynard has some additional funds to play with for 
    a smaller group of students will depend greatly on how it applies it's
    funds. No school system should be forced out of business by it's
    neighbors ability to raise funds. 

 re: .32
 >    I was speaking hypothetically
 >    based on assumptions I've seen elsewhere.

 What?  Where?

 Cliff

NOTED MOVED FROM 317.



================================================================================
Note 317.0                        20+ freshmen                        No replies
COASTL::JSCHMIDT                                     10 lines   5-SEP-1991 16:08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Hi,
    	My son (a junior at MHS) said there's only twenty-something
    kids in the entering freshman class---- could this really be true??
    How can ANY school survive with such a small class?  Kyle's junior
    class only has forty-something and i thought THAT was horrid.  Today's
    Beacon mentioned that two-thirds of the entering freshman class opted
    to NOT come to Maynard High.
    
    Judy
    

    I heard  3 Maynard students who started in ABHS have returned the
    the Maynard schools.  Can anyone confirm or have any information on
    this?

    This is not about maynard students who went to Abhs and returned...
    I read a note that stated there were only 20 some odd students in
    the Freshaman class... I read in the Middlesex news that there were
    48 students in the Freshman class... My daughter who is a junior
    didn't mention the number of Freshman... There are still quite a
    few... You should be there at 2:00 when school gets out... I was
    for regionalization as I thought my daughter woulld get the courses
    she needed for college... However I will live with the decesion
    of the Actonians.I will also do what I think is best for my daughter
    and the children of Maynard... I am still on the fence as far as
    the override is concerned. 

    
    Apparently there ARE more than 20+ freshman at MHS - WHEW, I stand
    corrected.  Please know that I've always (and will continue) to
    support the kids anyway i can.... and here's a prediction:  the
    kids seem to feel pretty good about the football, basketball and
    baseball teams at MHS this year - Kyle say's they'll ALL have a 
    winning season this year.  He thinks football will probably be 
    #1, baseball will be #1 absolutely, and basketball should be #1
    or #2  -  and they're all a GREAT bunch of kids too!!!  
    
    --- Kyle thinks only Katie Clark came back to Maynard from AB, as
        reported in the Middlesex News.
    
    J
     

    I don't know exactly how many freshman there are at the High School.
    But what I do know is that my child is one of them.  I would like to 
    tell you that he is happy, challenged and excited.  He is looking
    forward to a year of band and basketball and whatever else comes along
    that he has time for.  It has never occurred to him that he's in
    the band or may make the team because there is no competition, because
    there is.  There are more extra courses and after school activities
    then he can possibly be part of.  Not LOTS of choices, but lots of 
    choices.  I absolutely applaud the upper classmen and women.  They have
    made the freshman feel welcome and part of the whole picture from the
    first day.  They have showed a maturity and sophistcation I never had in
    High School.  The transition has been very easy and I am very thankful
    to the teachers for that.  
    
    Now I want to tell you that I was never for or against regionalization.
    I don't think for one minute that one place, one town, is better than
    another.  The truth is that both sides of the debate had excellent 
    (and awful) points.  Also I didn't grow up in Maynard so I don't have
    old ties.  What I am for is my child.  That's really what this is all
    about, how we feel about our children.  Knowing the finanical aspects
    and the population counts is important but what is more important is
    that we stand behind our kids.  If the idea is that the HS is broken 
    then that means to me that we as parents have got to help to fix it.  
    It's up to us to help suppliment our childrens education, to help 
    them intellectually and emotionally, not our school.  Our society is
    based so often on the "if it's broken throw it away and get a new one"
    theory and that is such an awful lesson.  Lets use this experience
    to show our kids the wonderful lesson of people working together and
    making positive changes.  We have to put our our feelings aside alot
    as parents to make our children happy and this is one of those times.  
    Our kids are at ages in HS were they start to pull away, this is a 
    great way to both make them proud of their parents and
    their town, and maybe in working together with them we won't lose them
    quite so quickly.  
    
    There's a parents group meeting at the high school on Sept. 25.  I hate
    parents group stuff because I work and raise a family but I'm going to
    this one and if we all went with our energy and ideas and the love we
    have for our children Maynard would make the papers once again, but this
    time as a strong and triumphant small town that faced of some
    challenges and won.         

    Here is an interesting statistic.  The enrollment of MHS is 13 students
    less than last year.  I thought by reading in the papers that the high
    school enrollment was decimated by all the students going to ABHS. 
    Apparently the freshmen class is larger than last years senior class so
    even though they lost a number of students the total number did not
    change that much.
    
    The first three MHS football games are home starting this Friday night.

		< < < NOTE FROM THE CO-MODERATOR > > >


The emotion in this conference is starting to build in intensity.  As stated 
in note 1 of this conference, it is important that we take into account the 
feelings (possible reactions) of others reading this conference.

Julian Parker - Co-Moderator

    Since I started this topic I will would like to say the following:
    
    1.  I and most people do not disagree with the concept of school
    choice.  We dislike the way the law is written and the unfair payment
    of state funds to fund choice students.
    
    2.  I also have faith in the Maynard school system.  It needs to and
    will improve with help from parents, teachers, town officials etc.. 
    Although my kids are only in the first and second grades I have only
    praise for the Greenmeadow staff and teachers.
    
    3.  This topic was about school choice not regionalization.  John you
    wrote the reasons why regionalization did not pass. The bottom line is
    Maynard voted for it, the Acton school committee was for it but the
    Acton residents were againest it. We had a previous school committee
    that spent too much time on the regionalization issue and not on
    improving the exsisting school system.  The town has underfunded the
    school system.  The Maynard school system did not get into trouble
    overnight and it will not get fixed overnight.
    
    4.  For the next several years MHS is going to have to cope with low
    enrollment.  Some changes and innovative ideas will need to be
    explored.  For example moving the 8th grade to the high school,
    volunteerism, resource regionalization etc..  
    
    5.  I respect any parent who sent their kids to other schools who
    believed they would get a better education and I also respect those of
    us who wish to have our children educated in Maynard.
    
    6.  Maynard's schools face many challenges and many are related to
    funding like busing, extracurricular activities, class choices etc.. 
    With all the parental involvement we have now, add adequate funding and
    backing from the whole town, Maynard's school system can be the best
    around.  
             

               This is an abridged version of note 315.40
               ------------------------------------------

My younger daughter and I are beneficiaries of the new school-choice law. I
support it. 

The law is fair in the sense that:

 1. I have paid my state income tax (source of local aid money)

 2. I have paid my property tax (half of which is for education)
    So I deserve what I consider excellent education for my children.

 3. If Maynard is willing to spend $6.9K per student going to the Assabet
    Valley Voc (some for an academic education) or more to send one student
    to agriculture school, then why not $5.4K to send my daughter to a 
    school which I feel will properly challenge her? 

A number of people who have complained that the law is "unfair" have done so
because it forces them to spend more money on education or make cuts in the
local schools.  In my opinion, their unwillingness to fund education is ONE
of the reasons that education is in such serious trouble in Maynard. 

However, this law has at least two serious drawbacks, about which I have
already written to both Senator Durand and Representative Evans. 

The first problem with this incarnation of the law is that it does not
provide enough choice.  The people who were prevented by lack of space from
sending their children to Acton's elementary school, even though they were
willing to pay the $4.5K, are justifiably upset that they had less choice 
than before. 

Next year and each year after that, this problem will become more serious as
the baby boom (currently below about the 4th grade) moves up toward high
school and more people learn about the potential opportunities. 

The second problem with this law is that it doesn't make any provision for 
the education of kids left in a school system which loses significant 
numbers of students.

This law is intentionally "Darwinian"; that is, it is intended to penalize
schools from which large numbers of students leave.  The problem with that
is that the students who remain will have dramatically narrower educational
opportunities unless local property taxes make up for the lost funds.  
There's that old problem again.  Spend money or accept degradation.

But if everyone had choice, then each parent would at least have some
opportunity to decide his/her child's fate. 

Unfortunately, as several previous replies have correctly pointed out, a
basic problem is that the state has withdrawn its support, forcing local 
property taxes to pick up a larger proportion of the burden.  Maynard has 
fallen behind because it has not adequately covered for the state's 
withdrawal.

Rather than complain about the unfairness, it will be more productive to 
suggest modifications to the law.  I think that wishing/working for repeal 
will be unproductive, unsuccessful and waste precious time.

Any significant changes to this law require a 2/3 majority in both the House
and Senate (since Weld has said that he will veto any such changes).  And
that can happen only after the bill gets out of the Senate Ways and Means
Committee which Bulger controls.  Bulger, by the way, wants choice to go
further in the form of vouchers which could be used in private schools. 

Here is one proposal.

    Phase I: (3 years) 
 
    The state income tax would be increased enough to pay, say, $4-5K for
    each child in the state (as is currently proposed by the Business
    Alliance report).  About half would go to the town in which the
    child resides regardless of where the child goes to school and the
    rest would go to the (public) school which the child attends.
    Payment of out-of-district tuitions would be paid first.  This is 
    based on the assumption that the number of out-of-district students
    STATEWIDE will be a small fraction of the total.

    This would give towns some time to get their educational houses in order.

    Presumably, property taxes would drop significantly during this
    phase.  The net cost would be higher than today but redistributed
    toward people with higher incomes.  This is fair.

Phase II:  

    Same as phase I, except that all the money would follow the child
    Maybe the changeover could be phased in over a few years. 

<End of Proposal>

This has two features:  First, the state would pay most of the tuition, as
it should and as it will if the Murdoch case comes out as similar cases have
in a number of states.  The Murdoch case argues that it is discriminatory to
fund local schools out of property taxes. 

Second, it gives Maynard some money and 3 years to beef up its schools 
before the Darwinism sets in.

The only problem with my proposal is that the state income tax would have to
increase to pay for it.  I am perfectly willing to pay more state income
taxes for better schools statewide and in particular for my own children.
Are you? 

If someone else has a better proposal, let's hear it.  

In the meantime, the perceived threat is supposed to activate the affected
towns to make their schools more attractive to their own residents and to
residents of nearby towns.  So far I haven't heard anything about that in
Maynard.  A group of towns out in the western part of the state accepted
choice and got together to plan how they could pull some real benefit from
this law.  They essentially agreed to become magnet schools in different
subjects. 

Our representative Hasty Evans is co-sponsoring a bill to bail out Maynard,
Gloucester and Hopedale (and maybe a couple others) THIS YEAR ONLY.  One of
the conditions of receiving the aid is to have a PLAN to make the system
able to retain students.  She even mentioned the "R" word.  I think that the
School Committee and faculty should be working feverishly on that plan.
Unfortunately, any plan will involve spending money, which, short-term, will
have to come from property taxes.  Evans, by the way, supports choice. 

MHS in particular has very little time to react.  Any 8th-grade boy can
figure out that it will be hard for Maynard to field a football team in Sept
'94 with only 3 freshmen out for football this year. It will be hard to
convince a decent football player to stay, even though football funding is
quite secure (since it brings in revenue).  Keeping the better (academic)
students will require significant improvements in the classroom AND a means
of demonstrating them. 

So, I think that the message is "Wake up and get moving!".

By the way, my daughter has not seen one incident of snobbishness yet.  She
is impressed (and a little intimidated) with how "smart" the AB kids are and
how well the whole system has its act together.  By "smart", she means some
combination of "serious, industrious and well-prepared".  That is EXACTLY
why we sent her there. 

:-) 

John

		   < < < EXTRACTED FROM NOTE 1.8 > > > > 

	WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO RE-READ NOTE 1.0 AND ITS REPLIES!

================================================================================
                       -< General Conference Guidelines >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	First of all, be aware and try to remember while you read this file,
everyone here is participating because they want to exchange ideas and 
thoughts.  When you read someone's note, read it with that in mind.  It'll go 
a long way toward minimizing misunderstandings and hurt feelings when we get 
involved in controversial topics.

	Speaking of controversial notes,  there are a few topics which pop up
with amazing regularity which are guaranteed to raise people's blood pressure.
While these are valid topics to be discussed here, the moderators beg you to 

1) keep your cool and remember to respect the other noters even if you don't 
agree with them and 

2) PLEASE CONFINE DISCUSSION OF THESE TOPICS TO THE NOTES 
INTENDED FOR IT. Please DON'T take every note down a RATHOLE on one of these 
SUBJECTS. 


	<< Failure to comply will result in moderator action and most 
	   importantly, please do not bring into play people or personalities, 
	   implied or otherwise.>>

	So what kind of things will the moderators do?  Most of the time, we'll
just drop a gentle hint to calm down or keep to the subject.  Occasionally
we'll move a note to a better place.  

	<< If a note or reply is controversial to the point that we think 
	   it would endanger the continued existence of the notefile we 
	   will set it hidden or remove it.  (Notes that would require this 
	   action are threats, racial slurs, notes that might involve us in 
	   legal action, bring into play people or personalities, implied or 
	   otherwise and so on.>>

As we all are reasonable people here, we won't need to worry about that, right?)



Thanks very much!  

Enjoy the file.

The Maynard Co-Moderators
Pete Ditmars & Julian Parker

    
    Senator Arthur Chase failed in his bid to have his changes to the
    school choice law brought from the Education Committee to the floor
    of the Senate. The Senate voted 22-12 to leave his bill in committee. 
    Senator Thomas Birmingham, Senate chair of the joint committee, stated
    that the committee prefers to address the flaws in the school choice
    law as part of it's comprehensive education reform package due out in
    late November. He also said that Senator Chase's plan would be heard by
    the Committee as one option in addressing the issue. 
    
     

THIS NOTE HAS BEEN MOVED FROM NOTE 338.0

               <<< MCC1::$1$DIA2:[NOTES$LIBRARY]MAYNARD.NOTE;4 >>>
                        -< What's happening in MAYNARD >-
================================================================================
Note 338.0                     Shool choice funds                     No replies
AKOCOA::LESAGE                                       14 lines  15-NOV-1991 08:08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Beacon had an article in this weeks edition about school choice
    money being spent on legal fees concerning a suit between some school
    officals.  Apparently school choice money's go into a general account
    that does not have to be used for education. The paper stated this is
    causing some problems within the Acton school baords.  Some of the
    Maynard school officals responded, (which I totally agree) it is Acton
    problem on how they spend the money from school choice, however it is
    just another indication on how flawed the school choice law is. 
    
    It seems a shame that Acton received all this money, Maynard lost
    money and Acton uses this money to spend on legal fees to cover a
    suit between some officals.  Maynard is trying to gather every penny
    to improve our schools and the money we lost from school choice is
    used for non-education purposes in Acton. 

    
    Based on the statute it would appear that this is a violation of the
    law. All moneys received for school choice students are to go directly
    to the school department. The second point I find curious is that, to
    the best of my knowledge, communities have not been paid to date. I
    asked our (Holliston) acting Superintendent this week as to when we
    could expect the first payment and was told late December. The last
    conversation I had with anyone at the statehouse indicated that the
    initial payments might not be made until they dealt with the overall
    financial problems in the law.
    
     

>>    All moneys received for school choice students are to go directly
>>    to the school department.

A bit of clarification: it *is* the school department that is incurring and
paying the legal fees.  Also, I doubt whether any legal fees are payable right
now; I'd expect the bills to come in after the hearings have been finished.  I
think they're within the letter of the law.  The committee makes the point that
the money is not coming out of funding for existing programs.

From what I remember from the article, there is some kind of "Excess and
Discretionary" fund into which the school department expects to put some amount
of the school choice money, and they would pay the legal fees from there.

The Beacon had a rather scathing editorial about the whole mess.  Regardless of
the legality, the political fallout from attempting to allocate school choice
funds, principally from Maynard, toward the huge legal fees of the hearings is
sure to be tremendous.  Given that a large number of people consider the
hearings to be unwarranted anyway, this latest proposal only adds to the
problem.

[For those who haven't the foggiest what this is about:  There are closed-door
hearings deciding whether the high school principal should be dismissed.]

						Brian

    Right! The state has not taken any money from Maynard yet for the
    school choise. However they did inform use that when it happening
    it will show up as a revenue defiect that we will have to make up in
    FY93 budget. So we are already in the hole by what ever
    that final cost is.
    
    
    art

    
    Don't be surprized if you have to deal with this in the '92 budget. You
    can be sure that certain state reps will hear long and hard from the 
    communities that have chosen to participate if payments are not
    forthcoming in late December.
    
    

    The DOR already told use to set the tax people and defict spend. Make
    it up in FY93.
    
    
    JUST LIKETHE STATE AND FEDS.

    
    And you listened???
    
    

    An article in the Beacon said a law will be passed that will cover some
    of the cost of the school choice program.  This is good news for the
    Maynard school system and Maynard's budget.

    
    I spoke to my State Rep. last night. A deal is apparently being worked
    between the legislature and the Governor's office that would set up a
    50% reimbursement of state aid lost by some of the cities/towns. It is
    by no means etched in stone so don't start counting on it yet.
    
    

    
    State treasurer Joe Malone is releasing the funds to school choice
    communities at the end of December. From what his office told me he
    is not planning on deducting the funds from the sending communities
    until the next local aid payment (March). The House has passed a
    bill that will reimburse a large part of the receiving communities
    local aid but not all of it. The hope of the treasurer's office is
    that the legislature and the Governor can enact this bill and an
    appropriation before March. 
    

It has been quite some time since there has been any activity in this
topic.  Since Maynard has elected to participate in the School Choice
program and slots have been allocated in the schools I was wondering
if there is any public information that can be reported as to how
many inquires, admissions, etc. have been made into the Maynard
School system?

I was wondering what the status is this year.  

How many Maynard kids stayed in Maynard. 
How many Maynard kids went elsewhere (and where) 
How many kids did we get from other places. 

Anyone know?  

    Maynard got some good mentions and a nice picture in an article on
    School Choice in Sunday's Globe.  Although the article tried to walk
    a line between endorsing and trashing school choice, it basically said
    that it has had a positive effect on some schools (the ones that
    were able financially able to improve their schools) and a very
    negative effect on others.

    Maynard was listed in the group where "competition has led to
    improvements".  It said:

    "In Maynard, parent dissatisfaction with the schools surfaced
    during an unsuccessful 1991 attempt to regionalize with the
    Acton-Boxborough district.  This year, the town lost 113 students
    and about $112,000 to choice, further underscoring the dissatisfaction.

    "In response, officials have endeavored to improve the schools:
    boosting the budget, installing new computers, establishing a Sight
    and Sound program in art and music, and drafting plans to market the
    system's small classes and instense teacher involvement, which led
    seniors to outscore all but one district in state assessment tests
    last year, said interim Superintendent William Vellante."

    William Bulger is pusing that School Choice no longer be 'optional'
    and that every school become a 'choice' school.  I have no idea what
    other 'changes' would go along with that...transportation, funding,
    what controls the 'choice' schools would have on acceptance, etc.
    The state is spending a LOT of money on choice this year...with only
    3000 kids participating.  The state is spending $11 million for these
    kids to get their choice.

    Anyone have any new data on the new proposals?
    bob

    One of the problems the Maynard school system faces in these times of 
    school choice is image.  From everything I've read and heard over the past
    year or so, we are fighting hard to overcome this.  Great strides have
    been made, but more is needed as evidenced in the amount of kids we've
    lost to the Acton and A/B school systems.  I believe that with the hiring 
    of Dr. Kennedy and the continued hard work of many, we are about to 
    witness the emergence of something that ALL townspeople can be proud
    of.
    
    Compare this to what is now happening in Acton.
    
    For the first time in history, the voters of Acton have defeated an 
    override.  The majority of the $1.6 million (that number ring a bell 
    with anyone?) was intended for the school system and library.  The 
    sacred cow has been stung.  This news, along with the firing of the 
    high school principal (who still has a lawsuit against the town) a 
    little over a year ago and the resignation of the superintendant (who
    was temporarily replaced by the business manager until recently) is not 
    all that great is it?  The problem is, those of us who rely on our
    local news from the Beacon, never hear a thing about any of this,
    unless we know someone from Acton that isn't a part of the propaganda
    machine.  
    
    While all this was happening, Maynard's school budget had an increase
    of 6.25% last year, and will have another good increase this year, if
    the numbers project as expected.  Test scores have risen.  These
    results have been the subject of a couple of Boston Globe articles as
    well as receiving local news coverage.  The school system has received
    a computer grant from Digital, which is the envy of everyone. 
    Extra-curricular activities such as WAVM and the boys and girls
    sports teams have always been top notch and continue to be so.  Walk
    into any of the schools sometime and I doubt anyone would not be impressed 
    by the spirit and excitement that is evident.
    
    For some interesting reading pick up a copy of this week's Acton
    Beacon and check out the article on the override as well as the Letters
    to the Editor.  The organizations on each side of the override issue
    are furiously working to strengthen their positions.  In the process
    there is a great bit of finger pointing, name calling and destruction
    of campaign signs.  Looks an awful lot like what was happening here in
    Maynard not too long ago during the regionalization battle.
    
    Compare this with the article in the Beacon Maynard edition about Dr.
    Kennedy sitting in on a 5th grade class.
    
    In Maynard, the two sides vowed to work in unison, regardless of the
    outcome, once the regionalization issue was voted on.  The question is, 
    will Acton be able to do the same?  I really don't see how their current 
    battle will ever end unless the state decides to totally fund the public 
    school systems, which will probably happen sometime after the skating 
    rink in hell opens to the public. 

Over the past couple of years in talking to some parents of children that have
elected to go to the Acton or A/B schools, I've asked them the simple question
"why?".  Their answers vary, but one of the common themes is that Acton
residents support their school system.  One could certainly argue that Maynard
residents also support their school system, but reputations are hard to break.

For those folks that don't get a chance to read the Acton Beacon, or whose only
source of information is the Boston Globe, there has been an interesting battle 
taking place in Acton.  Twice in the past 3 months Acton has tried to pass an 
override.  Twice the override has failed.  This will affect the school dept.
and library, as well as other municipal services.  And I thought Maynard was 
the only town that had problems funding the library! :-)

There has been a discussion taking place in the Massachusetts notesfile 
(12DOT2::MASSACHUSETTS, note #1454) that has focused on this topic.  Needless 
to say, the people are not happy.  There is talk of a degredation in the 
quality of the school system, declining property values, etc.  I found this 
quite ironic after having read in the Globe a week ago or so ago that Acton 
was a model for the rest of the state, because of their level of support in 
the school system.  I'm beginning to seriously question the Globe's 
objectiveness as a source of information regarding public education these
days.

Anyway, I've extracted a couple of quotes from the conference as a way of
informing Maynard residents that read this conference that aren't aware of
Acton's recent problems.  It's quite interesting reading.


"I sensed a loss of trust in the school committee and in the board of select*."
  
"Last year the school board was bragging about all of the $ that they got from 
Maynard etc.  This year they needed more money because of all of the students.
Acton now has one of the highest student per capita ratios in the state 
because of the "good" schools."

"This vote will now move us further down, but with significant degredation in
the quality of education.  It's pretty sad when the only device available
in the classroom to play recordings is a late 50s, early 60s phonograph,
and the only printing of materials, such as letters to parents, are on
the old mimeographs and frequently unreadable."

"What this will do to property values in coming years is not hard to predict."

"I also agree 
with Marc in that the cost per pupil is near the state median, but we get 
tremendous value for our dollar, the quality of which is in danger of 
significant degradation now."

"I believe there will be an immediate impact on the quality of 
the schools, both perceived and real.  This should lead to a decrease in 
property values as well."

"We signed our son up to go. Now, not only 
may he not go, but my daughter, who will be entering 6th grade at 
McCarthy-Towne next year, will most likely be "satellited" to the Merriam 
building.  They are both extremely depressed."

    "If the second override fails, there will be six 
    less sections of classes than are needed in the local school system.  
    5 new teachers and 1 existing position would be lost."

    "This is where it gets personal.  My daughter will be a 6th grader at 
    McCarthy-Towne next year, at least we HOPE she will.  She spent 
    kindergarten in New York, 1st grade at another school in Acton, and 
    finally got into McCarthy-Towne in 2nd.  It is truly upsetting to think 
    she might be transferred to another school next year, and then change 
    again the year after that when she enters Jr. High."

    "However, I would 
    be against class sizes of 32 to 33 in grades 1, 2 or 3.  Also, unless 
    additional money can be found next year to hire new teachers, that 
    "blip" will exist for that class all the way through grade school.  And 
    let's not even think about the projected 4 new sections that will be 
    needed next year!"
    
    "What I have not heard from the proponents of the override ammendment
    is how we will be able to contain future tax increases .......how will 
    we force town management to change their fiscal policies. What I -HAVE- 
    heard, is that we should expect to see continued override requests to 
    sustain the spending growth in town......all in the name of our schools."

    "All I hear from everybody is SCHOOLS SCHOOLS SCHOOLS.  Nobody got up at
    Town Meeting and asked how the B or B+ budget would impact the Library."
    
    "Acton school administration, especially superintendent's staff, is 
    significantly greater than other comparable towns."
    
    "What I do believe is 
    that we are at the point where more cuts are going to begin to affect 
    the quality of education. We will not have enough teachers to maintain 
    class sizes conducive to learning."
    
"I think that people were concerned about the personnel director being added to 
the town staff, the computer guru position that was created for someone in the 
school and some other positions in the schools.   The handling of the McNulty
issue and the lack of a line item budget created a sense of distrust that I have
never seen before."