February 17, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
During a joint Advisory Committee/Select Board/School Committee session Thursday night to discuss the proposed Fiscal 2024 school budget, questions related to decreasing enrollments, unmet needs, the 5% increase over the Fiscal 2023 budget that’s included in the proposed level services budget, and the proposed operating override were raised.
Supt. of Schools Margaret Adams provided an introduction to the budget process — budget priorities and current budget drivers — including rising special education, fuel, and personnel costs — and financial and enrollment data related to both the proposed balanced/reduced services and the level services budget. “About 83 percent of our costs relate to personnel,” she said.
Former Advisory Committee/Select Board member Mary Power said that while she thinks the time has come for an override, “I don’t yet know whether I support this override. Important details are still forthcoming.”
If the $65 million level services school budget request is approved, according to Power, “the education budget will have increased by 20% since 2020 (pre-Covid), while enrollments will have decreased by 11%, or around 500 students. The increase required to maintain education level services used to be a little over 3%. It’s now over 5%.”
She also noted that some of Hingham’s peer communities, which are facing similar [special education] tuition and utility rate increases, are proposing Fiscal 2024 level services school budget increases lower than 5 percent — including Wellesley, Milton, and Duxbury, while Needham’s proposed school budget increase is also 5 percent and includes 14 new Full Time Equivalent positions.
“It has been said that Hingham doesn’t have an expense problem, it has a revenue problem,” Power said. “I think it has both and am concerned that so far, we are only addressing the revenue issue.”
Power went on to say that successful overrides require both resetting the base and ensuring that future revenue and expense growth rates are in alignment. “While an override resets the base, new revenue only grows at 2-1/2 percent per year [due to Proposition 2-1/2],” she said. “If the largest budget continues to grow by 5%, the town will quickly find itself needing an override simply to maintain services. If that happens, it will be harder to fund new services and capital projects.”
Power also said that it would be difficult for her to support any override without a commitment as to the timing of the next one.
“I think taxpayers need time to absorb the tax increase from the recent debt exclusions [for a new Foster School and new public safety facility] and this [proposed] override, which combined looks to be about a 20% increase over the next three years assuming a $6 million override.”
Power went on to say that in her experience, “these tax increases will be challenging for many households to absorb, including households which do not qualify for tax relief programs. I also question whether median household income data captures the economic diversity that exists in our town and that we have said is important to maintain.”
In closing, Power asked the Advisory Committee, Select Board, and School Committee to keep in mind “all of our citizens” and to consider both revenue and expense growth as Town Meeting approaches.
Adams and Hingham Public Schools Director of Business and Support Services Aisha Oppong fielded questions from the Select Board, Advisory Committee, and the audience.
About 50 people participated via Zoom, while others attended the in-person meeting at Town Hall.
“There’s so much to absorb,” AC Vice Chair George Danis said, noting that the Committee received “a number of comments from concerned citizens” and that they “were very much appreciated and distributed to all of the committee members.” He also encouraged citizens to send questions and comments to the AC, SB, and School Committee if they wished to do so.
Select Board Chair William Ramsey asked regarding the nursing coordinator position at a salary of $115,000 that’s included under “unmet needs” whether instead, additional compensation could be given to an existing nurse position for taking on more responsibility.
“If we have to, we can be creative,” Adams responded, while at the same time explaining why the position is considered an “unmet need” due to the different roles someone in that position would have.
Melissa Sadler implored the three boards to “put forth the right number — the [dollar amount] that would fully fund the needs [of our schools]. You’re talking about presenting a balanced budget — getting rid of some specialists and paraeducators who help the teachers every day,” she said. “You should first walk a mile in their shoes and think long and hard about cutting the budget.”
Former SC member Liza O’Reilly expressed support for the override, which would enable the level services budget to be implemented. “The proposed balanced budget is painful to look at,” she said. “It’s vital to support what we need for Hingham.”
Another former SC member Ray Estes thinks it’s “vital that we adopt an override to right-size the school budget” and to maintain services on the municipal side that would be cut under a balanced budget.
Adams presented enrollment data indicating that there are 440 fewer students for the current school year than there were in 2013-2014 — 4,237 as compared with 3,797 currently — with fluctuations in-between. (See related chart.)
“Enrollments did decrease due to the pandemic, and we hope those numbers will stabilize,” she said. “We’re working hard to retain our student [numbers] by showcasing [through social media and other channels] how much HPS has to offer.”
School Committee Chair Michelle Ayer said if the level services budget reflecting a 5 percent increase over last year’s budget passes muster at Town Meeting, “I do believe that we can try to commit to keeping [the increase] closer to 3.5 to 4 percent [in future years], but we haven’t yet landed on what that number would be.”
As background, among the Sustainable Budget Task Force’s recommendations is for both the municipal and school departments to target a 3.5 percent expenditure growth rate in future years to better align expenses with available revenue.
The proposed FY2024 $65 million level services school budget, contingent on the passage of an operational override to cover shortfalls on both the municipal and school sides, provides for continuation of most investments made in the past two years — including the addition of more than 30 positions using one-time funding available as a result of the pandemic and also some reserve funds and also supports increased costs due to fuel, personnel, and special education tuitions.
The proposed cuts in the balanced/reduced services budget include the possible elimination of 60.6 Full Time Equivalent positions across the school district as well as student services, arts, athletics, and other academic programming — in order to close a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.
“Many fantastic years are [in store] for HPS [if the level services budget becomes a reality contingent on the passage of the override at Town Meeting and at the ballot box],” Ayer said, “making it an even better school system than it was before,” Ayer said.
The proposed Fiscal 2024 budget presentation is posted on the Hingham Public Schools website.
For further information about the school budget process, see https://www.hinghamanchor.com/school-budget-update-public-hearing-attracts-more-than-130-participants/