Regional school transportation cuts leaves L-S with $70K deficit

The cuts will affect as many as 40 districts and about 300 communities in the state, said Stephen Hemman, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools. Some districts are facing budget gaps as large as $900,000 as result of the cut.

“The difficulty is that this is money that has been counted on,” Hemman said. “Of 136,995 students in regional schools, 124,423 are transported.”

By state law, regional schools cannot charge a fee to transport students. Patrick has said he has not made reductions to the traditional Chapter 70 school aid yet, in an effort to maintain funding for education. However, Hemman said, as schools look for ways to close the budget gap, cutting transportation money will affect education.

Hemman said schools will probably look at their reserve money to cover the difference left by Patrick’s hit, and if there isn’t any, they’ll look at other places to trim.

“We recognize there’s a budget problem, definitely, but not to this extent,” he said. “We could see a $5 million or $10 million cut, but not $18 million. Thankfully, some legislators are asking Gov. Patrick to reconsider.”

Scott Carpenter, superintendent-principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, said Patrick’s cuts have left the district with an estimated $70,000 deficit.

“That’s $70,000 we don’t have to put toward educating students,” Carpenter said. “It’s a pretty big hit for us. … We had hoped to potentially restore positions that had been cut last year, but this is going to be clearly (more than) one position we would not be able to restore.”

Nine positions, including teachers and clerical staff, were eliminated last year, Carpenter said.

“This is just straining areas that are already strained,” he said. “It’s interesting (the state) advocates for and puts a lot of pressure on towns to regionalize, when this sort of a cut … is quite a disincentive.”

The cut also affects vocational schools.

Barbara Renzoni, superintendent-director of Tri-County Regional Technical Vocational High School in Franklin, said she is not sure yet how big the cut to the school will be – but it will be significant.

“We’ll go through the entire budget and identify what we can live without,” she said. “All accounts will be frozen and we’ll hopefully make up money by not purchasing, and not bringing in substitute teachers as frequently as we normally would.”

Renzoni said she was disappointed when she heard about Patrick’s decision. Tri-County includes 11 towns, Renzoni said, and transportation must be provided.

“I can’t decide not to transport (students). … Some of them are on buses for a very long time,” she said.

Renzoni said she isn’t sure yet if the law forbidding regional schools to charge students a fee to ride the bus should be changed.

“It’s one thing to charge when riding a bus is optional, but it’s something else to charge when you live 30 miles from school,” she said. “How many students would be deprived a vocational education because they couldn’t afford the bus fee?”

Mary Jo Nawrocki, superintendent-director of Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough, said Patrick’s cut means the loss of $250,000.

“It’s not going to be an easy pill to swallow, but we’re going to look at not purchasing some capital equipment and we’ll examine athletic transportation,” she said. “We’ll also reduce professional development.”

Despite the cuts, Nawrocki said she still supports the law forbidding regional schools to charge students a fee to ride the bus.

“If the state mandates we provide transportation, we should be reimbursed 100 percent,” she said. “I don’t think the answer is to start charging fees.”

Blackstone Valley Regional Technical Vocational High School Superintendent-Director Michael Fitzpatrick said Patrick’s cut leaves the school with a $240,000 deficit.

He said it is premature to say how the school will close the budget gap, but he does not intend to lay off any staff.

“We’ll do everything we can to ensure the quality of instruction,” Fitzpatrick said.

Even if regional schools could charge students money to ride the bus to school, Fitzpatrick said Valley Tech would be reluctant to do so.

“When you ask students and parents to go outside their community to a school system based in another community, you already ask them to accept some inconveniences,” he said. “(For example,) driving to sports and extracurricular activities that don’t match the bus schedules … it becomes an impediment to recruiting quality students.”

James Lynch, superintendent-director of Keefe Technical School in Framingham, said the cut means a $140,000 hit to the school, which has been operating in a deficit since September.

“We’re not looking at layoffs at the present time, because (they) are disruptive in the middle of the school year,” he said. “We will do everything (we can) not to disrupt the educational process, so we will be proceeding through the school year and looking for savings where possible.”

Lynch said he realizes Patrick must make cuts, but adding another unfunded mandate to the list is a huge disappointment.

“The incentive (for regionalization) is that transportation is (reimbursed) by the state,” he said. “We understand the governor has decisions to make and none are easy, but regional school transportation is a very, very important component of public school funding. We would like it to have the same consideration as other parts of his budget analysis.”

Anthony Fernandes, superintendent of Mendon-Upton Regional School District, echoed the same concerns at Monday night’s School Committee meeting. Patrick’s additional cuts make up about $250,000 of a $600,000 district deficit.

Fernandes said he had a plan to deal with some of the deficit through forgoing the cost-of-living increase this year and instituting furloughs until Patrick announced an even bigger hit to regional transportation.

“I have nowhere to go but to (cut) direct services,” he said. “The district has been immune from cuts in the last several years, and we’ve done a good job, but now I’m running out of options.”

Fernandes said if the union doesn’t agree, at least six positions, including a first- and fifth-grade teacher, are on the line.

Fernandes said he wants to keep the district’s programs whole, but he needs to come up with an answer in about two weeks.

(Krista Perry can be reached at kperry@cnc.com or 508-634-7546.)