Oak Bluffs has brushed aside a high school project funding formula suggested by Chilmark.
After deliberation on the subject and after learning the town’s finance committee had roundly rejected the idea, the Oak Bluffs select board resolved to push forward an “equitable argument,” as chair Brian Packish put it, and to convene an all-Island select board meeting to reach a compromise. At issue is a looming but yet to be authorized renovation or replacement of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, a project expected to cost many, many millions of dollars.
The Oak Bluffs select board took the position that the best way to divide the project costs across the six Vineyard towns would be based on town real estate valuations. This formula Edgartown loathes, and Chilmark isn’t keen on either. The formula proposed by Chilmark calls for 25 percent of the costs to be shouldered by each of the down-Island towns, and 25 percent of the costs to be divided among the three up-Island towns. Edgartown has embraced the idea. Hanging in the balance is the prospect of Massachusetts School Building Association (MSBA) funding, which is dependent on the towns reaching an agreement. MSBA has invited the high school into its funding eligibility period. On Monday a joint school committee meeting will be held on the funding formula and the MSBA.
In a March 7 email to the board, the Oak Bluffs finance committee expressed interest in problem solving, but vetoed the concept out of Chilmark.
“The Oak Bluffs finance committee met last night (Thursday 3rd) and briefly discussed the proposal from the Chilmark select board regarding the funding formula for the Regional High School reconstruction/rebuild project,” the committee chair Bob Gaffey wrote. “Our committee unanimously rejected the proposal as being insufficient, but applaud Chilmark’s effort in bringing this issue in front of each of the towns. The finance committee is anxious and willing to participate in any reasonable discussion with the other towns to explore formula options.”
Packish told his board he understood Edgartown was against “equalized valuation,” but he nevertheless saw that as the just path.
“I think the perspective that’s being missed is this is a regional project,” Packish said. “And Martha’s Vineyard as a region needs a regional high school. And looking at the valuations of real estate — to me it’s a very reasonable expectation that an equalized formula is applied to a capital improvement project like this. I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable if you have a house in a Aquinnah that’s worth $600,000, and you have a house in Edgartown that’s worth $600,000, and you have a house in Oak Bluffs that’s worth $600,000, that each of those particular homeowners would pay the same fee in relation to creating a high school, which is a regional effort. So to me I think it’s a very simple conversation. I think if you want to break it out and make it a town problem — my town’s paying more than your town. Our town is worth more money than your town is, therefore we’re going to end up paying more money. That’s unfair.”
Packish went on to say that previously there had been a high school sit-down, “and we had every town there.” Not long after the meeting started, Packish said, Edgartown’s representatives exited and “left us with five towns at the table and one unwilling to participate in the conversation.”
Packish said it was “discouraging” that the towns can’t sit down and talk. “Oak Bluffs is being seen as a problem,” he said. “I completely disagree.”
Select board member Jason Balboni said he agreed with Packish’s positions. He said the towns need to sit down like “adults” and solve the problem.
Balboni said the high school isn’t the only regional issue the Vineyard is facing. “If we can’t figure this out now, we’re just going to have a harder time in the future,” Balboni said.
Balboni said he didn’t know what the solution was, but he felt strongly that whatever it was, it wouldn’t be reached without a sit-down.
Select board member Ryan Ruley said he agreed with the positions of Balboni and Packish, and recommended the town get a letter out quickly to the other Vineyard towns requesting a sit-down.
“Let’s try to get everybody together,” Ruley said. “I mean, that’s all we can do. If people refuse to sit at a table with us, then it’s a nonstarter. And you know what, if somebody won’t show up at a table, then Oak Bluffs certainly isn’t the issue.”
Select board member Gail Barmakian agreed with what her three colleagues said.
Barmakian said Packish should put his arguments “on paper,” and soon. She called for an equitable solution.
Select board member Emma Green-Beach asked if the all-Island select board meeting might not be the appropriate forum for a sit-down.
Green-Beach also said she saw value in a mediator — “someone who specializes in mediating between municipalities.”
Balboni said a mediator had been discussed in the past, “but not everybody was willing to do it.”
Wherever the sit-down may occur, Green-Beach recommended space and facilities to accommodate presentations and visuals, such as graphs and maps.
Packish suggested the board “outline an equitable argument” and arrange an all-Island select board meeting. To that end, Packish said, he and town administrator Deborah Potter would draft a letter and Potter would circulate it to the board for comments.
Packish said the letter “should be a one-pager, without getting too deep into it, because we’re not going to solve it with a letter.”
He went on to say, “I think the message should be … there’s a very simple, easy, equitable argument to be made. It’s the way most of the rest of the state funds these types of projects. It’s consistent and standard practice. It’s reasonable.”
“As leaders” and as “adults,” Packish said the towns needed to arrive at a compromise: “Compromise generally means that everybody gives a little, We don’t leave 100 percent happy, but we all leave happy enough.”
The board took no vote on the subject.
The board voted unanimously to approve an annual town meeting warrant with a $35.5 million annual budget for fiscal ’23. The fiscal ’23 budget represents a $1.4 million increase over the annual budget for fiscal ’22.
A statement on the warrant indicates the finance committee had qualms about the budget.
“Although the budget passed the FinCom with a majority of votes, many members of the FinCom (including those who voted yes) have a heightened level of concern about the budget,” the warrant states. “Concern is primarily caused by high school budgetary increases that exceed a 2.5 percent increase over their budgets for FY ’22, thereby putting pressure on other areas of the budget that are not able to increase as much as the schools’ budgets so that the overall budget is able to remain within its levy limit.”
The Oak Bluffs annual town meeting is slated for April 12 in the Performing Arts Center at 7 pm.
The board also voted in a special town meeting warrant. The special town meeting will be held at the same time and place as the annual town meeting. Among the articles is a $600,000 boiler replacement request for the Oak Bluffs School.
In other business, the board voted 3-1, with Packish abstaining, to authorize the affordable housing committee to send a letter to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. The letter would establish that the affordable housing committee doesn’t support a modification of the Lampost DRI. The board, however, declined to endorse the content of the letter. It was only willing to grant permission to the affordable housing committee. Ruley was the dissenting vote.
The board voted 3-2 to end the mask mandate in town buildings. Green-Beach and Barmakian were the dissenting votes.
The board voted unanimously to approve American Thunder as the fireworks provider for the town’s summer fireworks show.
Assistant town administrator Wendy Brough said American Thunder had done the work “for many years previously,” and “came in under the bid price.”
Oak Bluffs Firemen’s Civic Association president Capt. Ray Moreis Jr. couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The Oak Bluffs Firemen’s Civic Association has long run the fireworks. Oak Bluffs Fire Chief Nelson Wirtz, who stressed he was a member, not a leader of the association, told The Times a number of factors contributed to the handoff of the fireworks to the town, not the least of which was the pandemic. Chief Wirtz also said several members took stock, and found the association efforts weren’t generating receipts commensurate with the fundraising efforts, and that there are fewer hands on deck for the overall effort in part due to the housing crunch. Chief Wirtz said since the start of the pandemic, the association has only met in person just recently. “COVID really did some damage to civic organizations like that,” he said.
Chief Wirtz said the association has passed along its historical knowledge about the fireworks event to the town.
Brough told The Times American Thunder bid $38,400 to for the fireworks show.
“Congratulations, American Thunder,” Packish said. “We’re looking forward to another great show. We haven’t had one in a while, and we’re pretty excited to get one going. So thank you.”
Congratulations to Brian Packish for calling for an all-island Select Board meeting to discuss an issue that affects the whole island. Was a date for that meeting set? Let’s hope this is the beginning of inter-island cooperation and regular meetings of all the Select Boards to work toward addressing the big issues we face as a community.
The so-called “All-Island Selectman” has no mandate, no legal authority to make any binding decisions. It makes no decisions. It has no regular meeting schedule or budget. It doesn’t vote on any issue. It has no bylaws or operating rules. It is a voluntary, informal association that also includes the seven County Commissioners, and a tribal representative. So 28 people if all were present. In my nine years as Selectman in West Tisbury I attended most, if not all, meetings of this group, and never were 28 members present, not even close. It’s a forum for discussion, and an opportunity for various interests to present relevant information to an Island-wide group at one sitting. It is not a deliberative or problem-solving group.
The timeline for arriving at a high school funding formula for the capital costs of renovating or building a new high school is relatively short. I believe September is the deadline or else any state funding, tens of millions of dollars, is forfeit. If two towns have hard-and-fast ‘no-deal’ positions then the Island is facing a disaster. Mediation should be tried, expensive as that likely is. We simply can’t go on any longer pretending we are six islands connected by land. It’s not affordable.
Nantucket like the Vineyard is a beautiful island, a mix of densely populated areas and open rural areas. Nantucket like the Vineyard enjoy the benefits of a very wealthy seasonal population. Unlike the Vineyard the entire tax base of the island supports the island schools, it appears to work well.
the education of our children is the responsibility of the entire island community, for the most part these are the children of a working community that serves the entire island. The fact that over 60 percent of the island children live in the small geographic towns of Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs allows the up island towns to be less densely populated while still enjoying the benefits of the entire island community.
Would it make sense to anyone that Chilmark build an entire high school for 40 children, the costs would be astronomical. To that end it makes no sense that the tax payers in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven carry the bulk of the cost to educate all the island children.
Mr. Packish is on the right track, I deplore my Tisbury selectmen to support him.
Our ancestors divided the island into six towns hundreds of years ago, they rode horses back then. It is time to rethink our antiquated way of doing business.
when an island born, stick in the mud, townie says that, then it really is time.
The Vineyard, like Nantucket, should be one town.
It is the only fair way to fund the schools.
I think you mean ”implore” rather than ”deplore”, the latter meaning strong disapproval.
Thank you
Yes implore was the correct word
I’m better with math than English and this is a math problem
Was that your only take away?
Maybe not – currently it is NOT a math problem – but it will be as proposed by OB – where different towns have different per-student costs at the same school – THAT’s a math problem!
It is basic to a successful negotiation process that when two parties (Chilmark and Edgartown) come off their position, and offer up an alternative, that the other parties, if they do not like the new proposal, come up with something else. The “leadership” of OB merely said “NO.” Our way or the highway.
There will be no new high school without compromise. The state is watching us to see if we can compromise or they will pull their $40 million grant on September 1.
OB town leaders may appear to be fiercely protecting their taxpayers. But are they? The leadership of OB does support spending its town’s funds on a “Sports Complex” with synthetic field, 1000 person stadium, press box, field house, and more. This complex has cost the towns over $500,000 already, and it will be much more.
And yet, when the town of OB was asked to vote on money for that synthetic field Sports Complex in 2019, the OB select board did not bring it to the voters — they declined to put up a warrant or call a town meeting. That means OB said “YES.” OB select board decided to spend taxpayer money without asking for the views of their own taxpayers. Do OB voters want to spend their dollars on a synthetic field and all the trimmings? No one knows.
Nor does anyone know whether the voters of OB agree that a new Sports Complex is a higher priority than a new high school. But that is what the OB leadership has decided for them, once again. And just a few days ago the OB finance committee doubled down and unanimously declined to take a position on the Sports Complex. They favored the MV Commission decision over the hard work of their own Planning Board and Board of Health — even while those boards processes are ongoing. That is the definition of dysfunctional government.
Our towns are direct democracies — we vote on everything, but only if it is brought to us by our town leaders. Sorry OB voters, important decisions are being made without you.
Well said!
Mediation! The consensus building institute: https://www.cbi.org/.
A good argument for basing funding on real estate value island-wide is made by an edgartown taxpayer here: https://www.mvtimes.com/2022/03/01/base-school-funding-property-values/
Around the US and the State there a many different funding formulas for regional services and schools. The towns all have a legal requirement to educate their town residents, those living in a home in the town. It should be based on the number of homes in a town because at anytime an owner has the legal right to use the home in the town and send their child to the school and the school is required to accept the student.
School funding based on real estate taxes is the usual funding in most places. It seems to me the only fair way to apportion the costs here. Oak Bluffs already shoulders more than by their fair share of costs for all kinds of resources which are used by all the towns. Let’s do the right thing and each town give in proportion to their tax base.
Massachusetts has no legal requirement that a child be educated in the town in which they reside.
The seventh town in Dukes County is a prime example.
They have no high school, there is no regional district.
Awhile back a parent insisted that their special needs child be mainstreamed in first grade.
The annual student transportation cost would be north of $200,000 and four hours a day for the student.
The Special Needs teacher would be close to $200,000 depending on teacher housing costs.
Falmouth did it for $36,000.
Because you live in a town does not mean that your child has the right to be educated in that town.
If your kid brings a gun to school it is unlikely he will return to that school.
The number of houses in a town is a very poor indicator of the number of potential students.