It was proposed as a “forensic audit” of past ORR School District spending, but during the Tri-Town Board of Selectmen meeting on April 27, Mattapoisett Town Administrator Michael Gagne said it would be more helpful to seek a financial assessment of current and future school spending, especially relative to OPEB (other post-employment benefits), how the budget could benefit (or not) from School Choice, and a review of the assessment formula for town school budget contribution.
“A ‘forensic audit’ will not be of value with the fiscal issues the school and the towns face in providing an appropriately funded and managed education for their students,” Gagne said, passing out a written statement on the topic. How will the future of an evolving educational curriculum affect cost? Will School Choice harm the school district with enrollment increases? How will the three towns ever cover the cost of an impending $21 million in OPEB funding? These are all questions that Gagne hopes will be addressed with the help of a professional school finance analyst.
“OPEB. Some say that this is the ‘fave’ subject that Mike Gagne likes to talk about,” Gagne said. “It’s probably the thing that gives me the most angst and the feeling that we need to do something and we need to do something now.” Yet, he added, OPEB is one complicated matter that needs to be addressed right now. And for $5,000 per town, Gagne said, “I can’t say with any greater strength that I support it…”
But as expressed during their last regular meeting, the Rochester Board of Selectmen, the town administrator, and the Rochester Finance Committee were not as fast to hop aboard as Mattapoisett and Marion were when it came to contributing $5,000 via a Town Meeting article.
Rochester Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar questioned the actual cost of an in-depth financial assessment, saying she did not believe that a cumulative $15,000 from the three towns would provide enough to fund the entire assessment. According to the experts she consulted with, Szyndlar stated, “Fifteen-thousand [dollars] isn’t going to get us that far. And that is a concern.” She asked what the true cost of this would be, insinuating that it could be more like $60,000 or more.
Rochester Board of Selectmen Chairman Brad Morse supported Szyndlar’s point. “Throwing out a number was our question,” said Morse. “We do agree that we need to sit down and figure this out, but we are just questioning what we are getting.”
New Rochester Selectman Greenwood Hartley said Gagne’s proposal lacked specificity in the scope and plan of the proposed analysis, and he wondered how much of what Gagne wanted to analyze was actually School Committee jurisdiction. Gagne, however, reviewed the priorities he articulated in his proposal and asked, “What’s not specific about it?”
Hartley said he certainly was not going to take any action that night, suggesting each town’s board of selectmen meet with their respective town’s members of the ORR School Committee.
Marion Selectman Steve Gonsalves said he thinks the towns have to do something. “Doing nothing is no longer an option,” said Gonsalves. The $15,000 assessment pales in comparison to the $10 million OPEB liability. “I feel we are beyond doing nothing.”
But even if Rochester refrains from contributing $5,000, and although $15,000 or even $10,000 might not cover the cost of a comprehensive analysis, Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson thinks they could prioritize the categories for analysis and start somewhere.
“It gets the dialog to begin, and I think more than anything that’s what needs to happen,” Dawson said. Yet, Dawson added that the towns shouldn’t be responsible for figuring out how to cover the school district’s OPEB liabilities in the future; however, the towns could help set up policy based on identifying what the main fiscal issues are the costs.
Hartley liked what he heard. “That is an excellent summary of what we need to do,” he said. Those are the points he could “one hundred percent support,” he added.
Mattapoisett Selectman Paul Silva views a financial assessment as a matter of urgency.
“We have kicked the can down the road for all those years that I’ve been involved,” said Silva. “One town makes excuses…. We need to move forward … and if we don’t, we’ll be kicking the can down the road another year.”
Rochester Finance Committee member Peter Arminetti, a financial analyst, said that he does financial assessments such as the one proposed “all the time.” He opposed a piecemeal assessment with only $10,000 of a possible $60,000 analysis.
“You can’t really engage a firm to do a piece of a project [like this],” said Arminetti. “It’s inefficient and not cost effective…. You want to start it and finish it all at one time.”
No definitive resolution was reached on the matter before the selectmen moved to the next item on the agenda, a short presentation from T.U.R.F. about the nonprofit’s proposed $5 million athletic field renovation at ORR. In addition to projected revenue from tournament rental, each town would be asked to fund the project at $1.67 million. After the presentation selectmen made no comment and asked no questions.
Although it was unclear as to who requested that ORCTV be included on the agenda, and selectmen did not appear interested in discussing the topic, a heated exchange ensued between those representing ORCTV and a resident, as well as the ORR video technology teacher affected by ORCTV’s discontinuance of an annual $74,000 grant to fund the video teaching position.
As ORCTV Board of Directors member Chris Charyk stated, the grant was never intended to be an annual grant, but somehow, as Board of Director members came and went, the $74,000 because a recurring line item in the ORCTV budget.
Ken Souza, the president of the Board of Directors at the time the education grant was established, reiterated the history.
“It was never an intended regular line item to be occurring every year in our budget,” Souza said. “It was just a one-time only disbursement.”
Charyk said, last year, after analyses of the ORR video education program, “What came clear to me was that this did not appear to be a sound investment.”
ORCTV’s mission is to provide the best possible programming for students, said Charyk. “It wasn’t happening.” He continued, “It was abundantly clear to the board unanimously that this was not a viable way of continuing.”
Instead, the board chose to provide its own quality educational programming to the students through video clubs and internships through the School to Work program at ORR.
Resident Debbie Roberts-Cordeiro took issue with comments made by ORCTV representatives, and engaged in a back and forth with ORCTV programming Director Robert Chiarito over the quality of the ORR video education classes and the quality of the new ORCTV educational set-up.
Debra Stinson, the school districts’ video coordinator whose position was previously funded by ORCTV’s grant, also joined the heated discussion, accompanied by Mary O’ Keefe who claimed she once worked for Comcast, but stated that she was not present on behalf of Comcast.
O’ Keefe argued that the boards of selectmen were the authorities that could direct the funds collected by cable companies through a franchise tax paid for by cable subscribers. She said the board of selectmen did not have to allocate all of the funds to ORCTV. “[The agreement] doesn’t say they can’t direct funds directly to school district to continue programming that they have done all along.”
Mattapoisett Selectman Paul Silva requested ORCTV provide the boards of selectmen with a comprehensive plan on what exactly ORCTV has done and would be doing in the future before conducting negotiations with ORCTV in the coming months. Silva gave a deadline for the report for November 1, which was voted on and approved by the other selectmen. Rochester Selectman Naida Parker abstained from the vote because she is a Rochester member on the ORCTV Board of Directors.
Tri-Town Board of Selectmen
By Jean Perry