EXPANDING THE RALPH C. MAHAR REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTKey Questions, Key Concerns, Common Interests

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THREE POINTS OF VIEW

Regionalization is the silver bullet that will improve schools, save money and promote a coherent system of governance and management.

Regionalization will cost money, reduce local control, and degrade educational quality.

Regionalization, intelligently and collaboratively done, will allow schools and districts to re-direct scarce resources from offices to classrooms.

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KEY QUESTIONS of this study

Are the Mahar educational partners (Orange, Petersham, New Salem, Wendell) getting the most out of their educational dollars?

Through expansion of the Mahar region, or similar organizational re-structuring, could the schools and districts re-direct resources from management to education?

Are there educational advantages to regionalization?

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THREE POSSIBILITIES THAT WILL ENCOURAGE INVESTIGATION OF REGIONALIZATION

Local control can be enhanced through intelligent regionalization.

Students will end up with a wider variety and greater depth of quality educational programs.

Schools and districts will be more resilient during tough financial times

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AVOIDING THE NEGATIVES

Lost of local control (budget, education, school)

One-size-fits-all approach to education Duplication of management services

Reducing school budgets to the ‘lowest common denominator’

Or

Raising school budgets to a level that towns cannot afford

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CURRENT STATUS: THE CONCERNS ARE OUTWEIGHING THE POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES

Must work to neutralize the concerns Then the advantages will be free to operate Clearer situation for some towns than others

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A SENSE OF URGENCY, A SENSE OF CAUTION, BOTH WARRANTED

Urgency If we don’t do something to make districts more

efficient, we’ll end up cutting educational services if (or as) the fiscal crisis continues

Caution If we regionalize in haste, or do so without great

carefulness, we may make matters worse.

Important to respect both perceptions, and still move forward

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CENTRAL OFFICE CONFIGURATIONS ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE

Too many duties, too many hours, too much unconnected with improving education

Have cut central office rather than cut educational services

Is reaching a tipping point You have dedicated, competent and hard-

working administrators and teachers throughout the system, but… no one can work effectively 80 hours a week

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THE STATE REVENUE PICTURE IS GETTING WORSE

Chapter 70 cuts for FY11 Transportation Reimbursement? Special Education Circuit Breaker

Reimbursement?

How will districts adjust?

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THE STAKES ARE NOT THE SAME FOR ALL TOWNS

All four towns are enjoying the benefits of a region for grades 7-12

Wendell and New Salem are already enjoying many of the advantages of a region, through the Union 28 Supervisory Union, for K-6

Petersham and Orange are not

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WHY HAS REGIONALIZATION NOT OCCURRED ALREADY? (ACROSS THE STATE AND IN THE REGION)

A question of territory?Or

Structural obstacles? Delegation of running of schools to a regional

central office (loss of local control) Most regions share a unified budget for

elementary schools (finding an average between two extremes)

District-wide seniority can erode the culture that develops within community-based schools

One large town and three small ones – can create structural imbalances on the school committee

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NEUTRALIZING THE NEGATIVES…

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WHAT’S LIKELY TO HAPPEN IF WE DO NOTHING? (THERE’S NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS, BUT DOING NOTHING GUARANTEES FAILURE)

Someone else will choose the structures and partners for us.

We will continue to waste precious local dollars on duplication of services.

We will continue to devote administrative time to management and governance rather than education.

We will continue to have students enter 7th grade with very different levels of preparation.

We will continue to lose essential educational services, as costs increase and revenue falls.

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COMMON CONCERNS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND THEIR TOWNS

Educational autonomy

Fiscal fairness

Community-based governance

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MAINTAINING EDUCATIONAL AUTONOMY

Guaranteeing that existing elementary schools will stay open

Providing for building-based seniority

Ensuring a central office focus on K-6 education

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ENSURING FISCAL FAIRNESS

A budgetary approval process that would allow Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham to continue to fund their town elementary schools at levels that they deem appropriate

Allocation plan: a way to share expenses and services in a partially regionalized district

Admission of school choice students to town elementary schools be based on a local decision-making process regarding space availability and school goals for class size

Some sharing of the revenues received by the district for school choice students be credited to the school budget in which the choice child enrolls

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MAINTAINING COMMUNITY-BASED GOVERNANCE

A governance structure that would ensure that Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham could continue to exercise direct, community-based input into educational decision-making at their local elementary schools

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FINDING THE POSITIVES…

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ENVISIONING A NEW MODEL

Empowered school-community councils. Central office leadership focused on

improving education. Efficient use of scarce local tax dollars. A model of process and product that other

communities could use. Increased educational specialization within

Mahar region schools.

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REGION-WIDE MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

Region-wide union contracts (teachers, paraprofessionals, administration, maintenance and custodial)

Region-wide health insurance system Region-wide student transportation system

(regular and special education) Region-wide special education management Region-wide networks of specialized

education (autism, gifted and talented, career and technical)

Region-wide professional development center for educators (teachers, administrators, etc.)

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POTENTIAL GAINS FROM INCREASED REGIONALIZATION

Making Better Use Of Leadership Time  

Banding Together On Fiscal Matters  

Providing Shared Professional Development for Teachers

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DISTRICT GOVERNANCE

An Expanded District is a New District  

Central Office Staffing  

A Transition Plan for Central Office  

Selection of School Committee Members

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EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION (done properly)

Significant amounts of management costs could be re-directed to maintaining and improving quality education.

A re-constituted central office management team could provide specialized leadership in special education, elementary education, ELL and so on.

An expanded K-12 Mahar would provide increased professional development opportunities for teachers, para-professionals, and central office educational leaders.

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EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION (DONE PROPERLY)

Best practices could be investigated and replicated throughout the district’s schools.

Remediation and alignment time and costs at grade 7 and above could be reduced.

Schools could combine their resources to offer appropriate programs for relatively ‘low-incidence’ populations of students (ELL, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral programs etc.).

Schools could combine their resources to develop and implement programs for gifted and talented students.

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FISCAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION

Central office business functions could be shared across a much larger group

Significant savings might be found in health insurance costs

Regional transportation reimbursement would increase substantially

Extraordinary special education costs could be shared across a larger district

Regional bargaining unit contracts would substantially reduce administrative time and district costs of negotiations

A larger district would be more stable and robust in the face of declines in federal and / or state education funding

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KEY COMPONENTS OF A REVISED REGIONAL AGREEMENT

Differential funding of elementary schools Community-based governance of elementary

schools Building-based seniority in elementary

schools User-based allocation plan for shared costs

(hybrid region) At-large election of school committee

members, with residency requirement

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KEY ELEMENTS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED OUTSIDE THE REGIONAL AGREEMENT

Incremental, partial, parallel or hybrid regionalization (DESE policy and regulation)

Building-based seniority in elementary schools (negotiations with bargaining units)

Differential funding of elementary schools within a region (statute, DESE policy and practice)

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POSSIBLE PARTNERS IN FURTHER EXPLORATION OR NEGOTIATION

DESE Center for School Finance, Planning, Research & Evaluation (Christine Lynch, Associate Commissioner Jeffrey Wulfson)

W. Mass Legislative team Bargaining units for all districts The Center for Collaborative Education (Pilot

Schools Project)

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NEXT STEPS

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