The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) committee unanimously voted to submit an amended draft regional agreement for the high school district to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) during a Thursday evening meeting.
Committee chair Robert Lionette said the agreement was sent before to DESE for review, and came back to them with “certain adjustments, recommendations made.”
School attorney Nancy Campany went over DESE’s adjustments and recommendations with the committee. She started off with “some general comments about wording changes” and grammatical errors. One of the corrections she highlighted was about draft versions. “They noted on the first page, the agreement that we sent them, referred to each version of the regional agreement, that we thought that the district had, but they noted that they did not have copies of all of those,” Campany said. “As a result, they wanted us to change the wording so that we didn’t reference specifically ‘568994’ and that it just said ‘as amended.’ That makes them more comfortable in approving it.”
“Does that mean they will be approving all of those other changes retroactively if they approve this?” Lionette asked.
“They won’t necessarily, but at this point … once this agreement is approved, this is the agreement going forward. So it will be binding as it’s currently stated and shown on this document,” Campany said.
Moving on, DESE suggested that voters should be notified that when Up-Island Regional School Committee members are elected, those with the highest votes are also technically appointed by Up-Island select boards to the MVRHS committee. This recommendation would not directly affect the regional agreement, so Lionette suggested the issue be taken up during an Up-Island school committee meeting.
Campany said DESE also wanted the committee to be aware that “the school committee is not required to … assume the costs of transporting students to vocational schools that are located off-Island.” However, the committee has the right to do so. Campany said the MVRHS district decided in an earlier meeting to pay for these costs, and not place the burden on the Island towns.
“By statute, students are entitled to attend nonresidential vocational schools, and the towns in which they are residents are required to pay for their transportation unless the … [school] district agrees to pay the transportation,” Campany said to committee member Roxanne Ackerman, who raised concerns on whether this part should be included in the regional agreement, and whether it was fair to voters.
After a bit more discussion, committee member Louis Paciello made a motion to submit the amended regional agreement to DESE. Before a vote was taken, committee member Skipper Manter raised concern over the funding formula for a new high school and the special dispensation given to Oak Bluffs.
“I believe Oak Bluffs is entitled to some offsets for the services they provide, no question,” Manter said. “But the question is, how much? I mean that in a positive fashion. Basing something on a percentage isn’t clear how much they are going to receive that’s proportionate to the amount of money they’re spending delivering the services to the high school.”
Manter also raised other financial points of concern, such as a lack of room for adjustments for future population changes, and the formula worksheet not taking into account interest and bond payments.
When Lionette asked if “further refinement or clarification” regarding the formula would halt the regional agreement’s approval process, Campany said yes.
“DESE … they want a final document going back to them at this point,” Campany said. “By the way, as far as the interest goes, interest and principal are treated the same. They’re capital costs.”
After some back-and-forth between Manter and Campany, alongside Lionette raising points, Ackerman said there may be an opportunity to “amend this agreement that might satisfy Skipper,” but “we should really move this along.”
“I am of the position that I am going to follow the lead of that working group. I understand Skip’s position,” Lionette said. “At this juncture, this has been vetted by all six town administrators and a representative via select board. No, it has not been voted on by the towns themselves, the taxpayers. But, at this juncture, to move forward, I’m willing to accept their work as is represented here in this document.”
Lionette invited other committee members to speak up if they felt differently, in which case, “we’ll push the pause button.” After this was met with silence, the committee continued to unanimously approve submitting the amended regional agreement to DESE.
In other business, the committee unanimously voted to create a five-person Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) subcommittee. This was done so the school district could meet more regarding MSBA funding than what is possible with the committee’s regular schedule, which already has difficulty forming quorums. Members of the subcommittee have not yet been selected.
“This schedule that’s been imposed upon us by the MSBA is a lot, and our regular meetings will be all consumed and we will lose focus, I’m afraid, of the business of running our district,” Lionette said.
The committee decided to hold off on the discussion of the school building committee membership makeup until their next meeting on Monday, Sept. 12.
