After Monday night’s joint school committee meeting, only the signatures of chosen candidate Mike Nelson and respective regional and union-side chairpersons Cary Humphrey and Shannon Finning stood in the way of the Old Rochester Regional School District having a new superintendent effective with the June 30 expiration of retiring Superintendent Doug White’s contract.

            The return of the ORR District School Committee and Massachusetts School Superintendency Union #55 from executive session to announce an agreement with Nelson was made with more relief than the joy expressed upon the Committee’s selection of Nelson as a finalist in March.

            “This has been an incredibly long process of meetings with the groups. And working with (consultant) Jim Hardy – I know some didn’t like his communications style – but he was very valuable to work with so I’m very appreciative. All’s fair in negotiations, and it was frustrating for all of us to go back and forth… what was acceptable and then was not,” said Humphrey after both sides unanimously voted to accept the contract terms negotiated by the subcommittee. “I would like to encourage the region (side of the joint committee) to, number one, hold (Nelson) accountable but, number two, to support him. At a time when we have no idea what’s going to happen in the next few months… he’s our leader now.”

            Applying the finishing touches to contractual agreement with a favored son promoted from within turned out not to be the fait accompli one might have assumed. The finalizing of a standard-length, three-year contract, the sequel chapter following the drama of the interview and hiring process, apparently had its own adventure.

            “When we advertised for the position, there was a range (of annual salary) between $170,000 and $190,000. We knew if we were getting somebody who was getting their first superintendent’s position or this was their third. While certainly not saying that the $20,000 isn’t significant, there was a floor and a ceiling,” explained Finning. “We honored the spirit of what the contract was advertised as.”

            There is much more that goes into a contract negotiation beyond quibbling over the bottom line, and a variety of concerns could factor. Nelson is a doctoral student so the timeline in which he is expected to complete his degree program is one thing, and another is potential tuition reimbursement in the mix with a negotiated benefits package.

            “I think this is an opportunity when somebody’s taking on the chief role of an organization to advocate in their best interests and to ask any and all questions from what they have learned or heard from the MA Association of (School) Superintendents,” Finning told The Wanderer following the meeting. “It was a spirited, fairly intense, negotiations that occurred… There’s something about being at the same table that would have cut down on the time it took.”

            Humphrey also suspects that the context of a school year turned on its side by the coronavirus pandemic brought its own measure of distraction and delay into the negotiations. Now that the process has ended, he was eager to praise those involved and thanked Finning and Michelle Smith of the negotiating subcommittee.

            “I could not have had a better partner in this,” said Finning in the committee meeting, thanking members of the committee for their work and support. “We will work tirelessly to support Mr. Nelson.”

            Finning told the joint committee that she and Humphrey will reach out to Nelson and White to initiate a transition period.

ORR Joint School Committee Superintendents Union No. 55

By Mick Colageo

            In its first meeting of the month, the Marion Finance Committee held a group meeting over the GoToMeeting video conferencing platform to discuss an updated agenda and resolve outstanding business. The meeting was held on May 18 after the initially proposed meeting date of May 6 was rescheduled.

            Chairman Peter Winters led the committee through a preliminary review and approval of minutes. The minutes from meetings held on March 11 and April 1 were approved with unanimous votes.

            After the concluding remarks pertaining to outstanding issues, the committee moved on to a review of the amended budget. Assistant Town Administrator Ju            dy Mooney reported that the total projected general funds revenues for the Fiscal Year 2021 are $24,772,528. The projection is a 2.55 percent, year-to-year increase from FY20.

            Town Administrator Jay McGrail noted that there is a projected negative outlook on state aid for FY21 due to the COVID-19 crisis. This came after an analysis and cross-reference of state aid received during the great recession.

            “Our goal was to put together a proposed budget based on a negatively impacted state aid outlook,” said McGrail. “We tried to spread it out so that no one department was affected unfairly.”

            Describing amendments to the budget, Mooney determined that the analysis of state aid and growth figures would be prudent. The changes indicate that last year’s state aid, amounting to $1,215,316, will likely decrease to $1,076,926.

            Despite the marked decrease in revenue, Mooney noted that “Marion does not rely heavily on state aid,” and the 10 percent decrease from the previous year was factored into the budget in order to preempt decreases in aid caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

            Mooney’s report anticipates a 15 percent decrease in overall funding to the town of Marion in FY21. That said, FinCom made specific efforts in its budgeting to guarantee that the cuts would not result in any reductions in staff.

            “Thankfully, our conservative approach has allowed us to avoid any layoffs,” said McGrail. “We really tried to focus on cutting programs and services planned for FY21. That way, these programs are just no longer moving forward as opposed to cutting already existing programs.”

            Even with the committee’s successful efforts to avoid any loss of jobs, the projected budget still includes sweeping cuts to Marion’s local programs, including a $60,000 cut to the schooling fund. Members of the committee made mention of their gratitude toward local groups for their cooperation during this crisis. “We told them what we needed to cut, and they chose where to cut the money,” said Mooney.

            The hope for many committee members is that the cuts will not need to be as significant if reimbursement for increases in spending due to the virus is received.

            “We will be looking into getting reimbursed for all of our COVID-19 spending,” Mooney explained to Winters. “Some will come from FEMA, some will come from Medicare. The hand sanitizer, plexiglass, gloves, and masks will all be reimbursed from different pools of funding, but some money needs to be accounted for preemptively in the budget.”

            Even with precautions added to the budget, Mooney explained that FY22 would likely be the biggest challenge. “FY22 is going to be very difficult, more difficult than this year. We have a large amount of tax revenue that is not coming in because of closed businesses.”

            One positive budget topic brought before the committee related to the town’s local receipts, a tax-free revenue source. The projected amount from receipts totaling $1,600,000 for FY20 has already been surpassed and is closer to $2,000,000. The committee made it clear that the added revenue will help ease future budget cuts.

            Winters echoed the sentiment that a conservative approach is the most appropriate course of action in this economic climate. The Marion Finance Committee took efforts to aggregate more revenue to stabilization funds. These funds essentially act as monetary reserves in case of dips in revenue.

            “Our greatest expense is the revenue being dumped into the stabilization funds, which is good news with economic uncertainty in the future,” said McGrail. 

            With the amendments to the budget addressed, Winters called for a motion to approve the budget. The motion unanimously passed, and the budget will be recommended at the Marion town meeting scheduled for Monday, June 22.

            Town meeting is scheduled to be the town’s return to in-person meetings since the COVID-19 outbreak. The meeting will take place in three locations including a central location in Sippican School and a fourth location, the Tabor Academy fieldhouse, for a total of four different locations. Attendants will be socially distanced, and a screen with audio feeds will project the meeting to each location.

            McGrail expanded on the impact of the virus on the town offices and explained some radical transformations taking place to guarantee the safety of the town’s workers. The changes include socially distanced office desks and the addition of plexiglass shields. Those changes, along with facial masks and gloves, will be the new normal when the offices reopen.

            “We have hit our targets, and we have not had to do any layoffs,” McGrail told the committee. “All workers are working from home or in the office on abbreviated schedules.”

            The offices are set to reopen in full capacity on Tuesday, May 26. The reopening will see the return of all current staff, but the offices will likely continue to be closed to the public until June, when further examination of the current crisis will take place.

            The next Marion Finance Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 3, at 7:00 pm. Barring any changes, the meeting is set to take place remotely on the GoToMeeting video conferencing platform.

Marion Finance Committee

By Matthew Donato