Stone responded with Contract: Elie and Sheehan on WCAP
By Shawn on Mar 17, 2012 in Community, Schools
Probably before the outcry here in Dracut, Steve Stone actually responded to the call from School Committee Attorney Kevin Murphy with a proposed contract in the response to start negotiations with the town.
We’re told by Bonnie Elie that the contract offer was for a $149,500.00 starting salary. We don’t know about other requested benefits at this time.
Of course, we have Ron Mercier who is going to call to re-think that vote at the last meeting (“reconsideration” can only occur during the same meeting).
Thursday evening will be a special meeting of the School Committee at the High School.
Update: Audio clips of the interview are attached.
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Rich Cowan | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
I just listened to WCAP and I heard Warren Shaw repeatedly say something that a lot of people in town are saying, but which I think is not completely true.
What he said (please correct me if I am misrepresenting his view) is:
1) Dracut doesn’t have a very large tax base to begin with. (this IS true)
2) Despite this, Dracut does a pretty good job with education because the school system receives a good share of the total town budget — a percentage that is at least equivalent to what schools get in other comparable towns.
At the school budgeting workshop last Monday in Harmony hall, David Tobin presented numbers that were pretty much in support of what Shaw said. He said that Dracut has spent around 55% of its budget on schools (rural areas spend more as a % while urban areas spend less).
The numbers I am looking at on the Town Manager’s page suggest that BOTH Shaw and Tobin are overstating Dracut’s commitment to public schools. Take a look:
http://dracut-ma.us/departments.aspx?deptid=1
In the document “Copy of FY13 PageA.pdf” which includes the actual approved spending for both FY11 and FY12, education spending went from $31.10 million (last year) to $31.54 million (FY12).
At the same time, the total town budget went from $62.24 million to $63.86 million.
FY 11 education as a % of total: 49.97%
FY 12 education as a % of total: 49.39%
Not only are schools getting less than half the town’s budget, but the fraction has gone DOWN during the past two years. If the Superintendent’s request for FY13 is approved, the schools will get 52% of the town budget. If none of that money is approved, education will drop to only 48.5% of the town budget.
I have reviewed budgets for several towns comparable to Dracut in size, and it appears Dracut’s school funding as a % of total funding is well below average.
Given that we receive millions more per year in state aid for education than comparable towns, I believe that Dracut’s tendency to spend less on education is inexcusable.
warren | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
Rich
The town side budget has much of the schools employee cost.. health insurance etc
Shawn | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
The handout I got from Mr Tobin at that meeting (I missed most of it but the last half hour) gave a list of School District Spending per pupil from all funds, that listed Dracut as spending a total of $42,375,106 in 2011, at a rate of 10,169.70 per student.
The previous page says that Dracut has a local share of 54.79%.
Again, I’ll have to dig into this some more, and maybe go see Dennis for more info.
Rich Cowan | Mar 17, 2012 | Reply
I mentioned this to Dr. Mike McNamara and he said the same thing as Warren which would account for the difference between 49.x% and 54.x%.
Still, if you deduct the state aid contribution and only look at the per-capita amount of property tax money going to schools, Dracut looks ridiculous compared to many other suburban, non-wealthy districts.