2024-03-20 — Re: Fy 25 School Budget
From: "Ottina.Kathleen <KOttina@whitman-ma.gov>" <KOttina@whitman-ma.go
To: Jeffrey
Cc: beth.stafford@whrsd.org
Bcc: jeffrey.szymaniak@whrsd.org
Date: 2024-03-20 06:46
Subject: Re: Fy 25 School Budget
■
Good morning, Jeff,
Thank you for your prompt response. I want to continue this discussion.
1. Transportation. I have been serving on the Regional Agreement Amendment Committee as a
non-voting member for the past two years. It was first chaired by Chris Howard and now by Chris
Scriven. I had one goal – to revise Section V - Transportation. As it currently reads: “School
Transportation shall be provided by the Regional School District and the cost thereof shall be
apportioned to the member towns as an operating cost. The Regional School Committee shall
determine on an annual basis whether or not non-mandated busing will be paid for by the
Regional School District. If the Regional Committee decides not to provide non-mandated
busing, an Article will be presented to the Selectmen’s office of each town for approval by the
voters.” This is from the 1992 amended agreement. If the Regional School Committee chose to
provide non-mandated busing and calculate its cost as an operating cost it would obviate the need to
submit a separate article to the towns for funding. As it stands now, the Town of Whitman is bearing
a disproportionate share of the transportation costs by segregating the mandated and non-mandated
costs and calculating the Towns’ shares using different metrics. Using the FY25 projected
transportation costs (see FY25 Transportation attached to this e-mail) I calculate that Whitman will
be paying at least $40,565 by one metric or $86,921 by a different metric that should be paid by
Hanson. Therefore, if the School Committee determines that it will not pay for the non-mandated
busing and will, instead, submit an Article to the Selectmen’s office I will oppose the funding of that
Article. This will be my position until the Transportation language in the Regional Agreement is
changed.
2. Regarding my question on class sizes, you answered the issue of the Hanson Middle School
sixth grade by stating there was an error, there will only be five sections of sixth grade. Does that
mean that the FY25 budget includes salaries five teachers and the error was simply in the
presentation regarding class sizes? Furthermore, you failed to address the issue of the HMS eighth
grade. Running five sections of eighth grade at an average class size of 22 students (110/5) is
consistent with the class sizes for both Hanson and Whitman Middle Schools. That is $71,000 in
savings that I urge you to consider.
In conclusion, I will note that I have recently come across an article from The Enterprise published
May 7,2019. The opening line reads “After a season of bitter negotiations that pitted the school
district against Town Hall…” You know how that ended. The School Committee accepted a budget
increase that required cutting 19 positions, Whitman’s assessment increased by 8.5% and the
school district’s budget increased by 3.66%. None of us wants a repeat of that scene. I hope that you