Up-Island school budget moves to public hearing

The up-Island school committee approved the fiscal year 2024 budget in a 4-1 vote during its Monday evening meeting. Committee member Skipper Manter cast the dissenting vote, saying he doesn’t disagree with the budget, but he disliked the process to reach it. The committee will hold a budget public hearing on Thursday, Dec. 22, at 5 pm, and potentially certify it. 

The fiscal year 2023 budget was $13.9 million.

The motion approved included a 5.61 percent increase to the budget, which is $14.7 million, alongside the additions of a reading specialist for Chilmark School (estimated $20,000) and several line items to be funded with excess and deficiencies offsets: $5,000 for Chilmark School furniture, $2,000 for West Tisbury School furniture, and filling a contingency line to potentially hire up to three education support professionals, which is estimated to cost around $213,000. All of this adds up to a 7.33 percent increase in the budget, equating to a $14.9 million budget. The committee had anticipated an increase to the following school year’s budget, but found the 8.81 percent budget increase unpalatable. School administrators took another shot at trimming down the budget from a 6.94 percent increase, leading to the current version of the budget. 

Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools business administrator Mark Friedman, with explanations from West Tisbury School principal Donna Lowell-Bettencourt and Chilmark School Principal Susan Stevens, showed two versions of the budget highlights, one with a 5.57 percent increase and the other with a 4.58 percent increase to the budget. Each of the scenarios shared many similarities. In both scenarios, the school district’s principal and interest payments were reduced ($21,000) alongside adjustments to staff positions (e.g. special education assistant, reading specialists, guidance, etc.), affecting the salary and health insurance lines, and furniture expenses. For furniture, Chilmark School would need to borrow some equipment from West Tisbury. One of the largest differences was the reduction of a full-time teacher ($79,750.84) at West Tisbury School in the 4.58 percent increase scenario. 

“In both of these versions, other than that debt service reduction, there is an effect to reducing these line items,” Friedman said. These include the availability of guidance departments, student-to-teacher ratios, classroom types, and other considerations. 

Martha’s Vineyard Superintendent Richie Smith made a point that school leaders looked into a 4.65 percent reduction scenario, which was the number tentatively agreed upon during the last meeting and the average annual budget increase over the past five years. 

“We hashed out what [4.65 percent] might look like, and 4.65 meant an actual reduction in Donna’s school, and actual no growth [in staff or classrooms at] Susan’s school,” Smith said. Chilmark School staff had concerns over this figure in particular because of the increase in student population, according to Smith.

Later, $4,000 was added back to the budget for Chilmark School’s library services costs to cover a discrepancy in the budget. 

“I really hope we don’t get there, and I really hope I don’t have to cut both positions,” Lowell-Bettencourt said, referring to the version with an increase of less than 5 percent. “I’ll remind you, I can just speak for the West Tisbury site, we’ve kept the numbers very low over the last five years … we haven’t been expanding.” 

After more discussion, including some topics the committee may return to in preparation for next year, like school choice, the committee leaned in favor of the 5.57 percent increase, which became a 5.61 percent increase with the library services cost change. There is also a limit to how much can be cut, since a large part of the increases comes from the teacher contracts negotiated in October. 

Committee member Robert Lionette expressed concern that some of the positions up for cuts would be personnel the schools would need next year, such as special education staff. The committee agreed to add several additional expenses and staff to meet school needs, some on contingency in case they end up being not needed. 

Manter made a point that the budgeting process should be clearer on the differences between expenses and the assessment. He also thought there should be a discussion on whether contingency should go back to the towns. Committee chair Alex Salop agreed these were topics to return to after the budgeting process was completed. 

In other business, the committee unanimously voted to form a task force to develop a recommendation on how an up-Island preschool can be pursued. Meanwhile, Friedman will see what kind of contractual issues may exist for this endeavor. Relating to the preschool, Lowell-Bettencourt told the committee that the request to fund a preschool pilot program will be rescinded. However, she said the work to formulate the program will continue and “keep the momentum going.” Smith made a point that a deeper dive into whether pursuing a “universal preschool” program would be beneficial for the up-Island school system. 

The committee unanimously voted to enter into a $145,000 contract with the firm Black Point Builders for the Chilmark School window project. 

The committee voted 4-1 to use contingency funds to make onetime payments on the collective bargaining agreements. Manter cast the dissenting vote, saying he thinks the contracts were a good idea but was not in favor of them.