Tonight. High School library. The long-awaited School Committee vote on whether or not Marks Meadow will be closed at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. At stake is the $673,000 per year in savings estimated with the closure of the school. (First year savings will be $125,000 less due to one-time moving costs and there is apparently a transportation increase of $16,000.) Also at stake is the future of a school which has many vocal supporters (see the op-ed section of last week's Bulletin for a sample).
The plot apparently thickened Monday with the addition of negotiations with UMass about the future of the building if it does close (Superintendent Geryk recommends moving the two alternative high schools to the building), or alternatively, the payment by UMass for the education of the approximately 50 students per year from UMass who receive a public school education in Amherst tax-free. The article in the Gazette suggests that this payment in lieu of taxes would potentially generate between $675,000 and $725,000 annually for our schools.
Regardless of whether this payment option is even feasible given the financial situation at UMass or whether or not the Marks Meadow building could be used for something else, I still think that closing Marks Meadow is the fiscally responsible decision, is in line with our enrollment projections, and fits within the current long-term strategic plan for our elementary schools. Yes, this does mean a huge change for our entire community (especially since the closure of Marks Meadow will result in many children being redistricted to other elementary schools--not just the students currently at Marks Meadow), but it is a necessary change. Especially since the Finance Committee has stated the possibility of using reserve funds "to implement bona fide plans to move toward models of service provision that would provide net savings to the town in the future while providing acceptable levels of service. Since we feel that moving in this direction is extremely important for the long-term sustainability of services, if reserves are to be used, we encourage targeted use of reserves to aid the process of transitioning to new models that reasonable analysis indicates have a likelihood of providing future cost savings, but might have some costs associated with a transition, or require a reasonable and finite time to implement." Thus, if the School Committee votes tonight to close Marks Meadow, the Finance Committe might recommend the use of reserve funds to cover some of the budget deficit for our elementary schools this year. Without that, we are facing, minimally, a net $1.2 million less for our schools (based on the Tier 2 budget passed by the School Committee).
Ultimately, though, I think the worst thing for our schools and for our town would be for the School Committee to delay this vote beyond tonight. Whether Marks Meadow is to be closed or whether it will remain open and the budget shortfall will have to be made up somewhere else, our students, our teachers, and our communities need to have some resolution of this issue so everyone can move on to planning how to implement the results of the decision. No matter which way it goes. Come out tonight and see what happens...and urge the School Committee to be decisive tonight.
6 comments:
Good informative post. Closing MM seems to be by far the best of the bad options.
Yeah, and while they are at it non-rev, freeloader Umass could also pay the 4% local hotel/motel tax on the Campus Center Hotel (even the Amherst-College-owned Lord Jeff, when it was operating, paid it).
A committee chaired by Stan Rosenberg a few years back concluded it would generate $70-K per year for Amherst (and since the money comes from the consumer using the facility not really any skin of the nose of Umass)
Closing MM seems to be by far the best of the bad options. What kind of nonsense is this supposed to be? Closing an elementary school, tearing apart a well established educational program where children from around the world get to mingle with children from our community in an atmosphere of excellent teaching is the best of the bad options. Geeze I would hate to hear what the other bad options would be doing to people...=(
Anon 7:48PM: According to the budget numbers we have been shown, the "other option" would be to reduce art/music/gym/computers for all students, eliminate the instrumental music program, increase class sizes across the board, reduce the number of intervention teachers, and a number of other cuts that will affect the education of all our children. Unfortunately, some of this will still need to happen even with the closing of Marks Meadow, but at least these cuts will now be mitigated.
Have you given up?
:-) Not really, but sometimes I wonder if I should! In the past two weeks in my house we have had pink eye, pneumonia secondary to swine flu (probable but not confirmed yet), potty-trained a 21-month-old, sixth-grade graduation planning and numerous other end-of-school activities both at home and at work. I should get back at it, though, huh?
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