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A Private Solution To The Schools Budget Crisis

Dear Editor:

I wanted to share with the Groton Herald a petition that was created this morning in response to the school committee recommendations as of February 19, 2014. 

In my opinion there seems to be a narrow minded approach to a very serious budget problem.  Instead of trying to restructure the budget or properly research and find a way to implement viable revenue generating proposals we only seem to be presented with recommendations to dismantle our children's education.  

With a deficit of 2.7 million an override of some sort may be inevitable but getting it approved will be almost impossible if the school committee continues to offer recommendations that destroy the integrity of our curriculum verses making a valiant effort at exhausting ways to implement some of the proposed revenue plans such as the Art

Music Fee Program.  

Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/392/450/994/save-art-music-programs-stop-...

A Proposal for Fee-Based Program for Art & Music in Groton-Dunstable Regional Schools

Given the dire budgetary circumstance our School District currently finds itself, there is the need to identify sustainable revenue sources to support our school system and prevent cuts to critical programs and services. Many residents recently expressed support for the District to impose busing fees for students in the District to a) close the deficit in the current and near-term budgets for the District and b) create a sustainable revenue stream to support annual the District budget. Unfortunately, a transportation fee-based program cannot be established because state regulations require regional school districts to provide transportation for its students.

Proposal For Fee-Based Program

It is proposed that the District institute a per pupil fee to support the arts and music programs at schools in the District. The fee-based program would have families with children in the school system pay an annual per pupil fee to directly support arts and music programs in the schools. The following are some points about the proposed fee-based program:

· Arts and music programs are not mandated like science and math, but are required, meaning that districts are able to determine how often they offer the programs. They are typically the first to be drastically cut back - if not eliminated- when school budgets become tight. In fact, the proposed FY15 budget (which includes a $1.2M deficit) cuts 1.33 positions that support the arts program in the District.

· The suggested fee is $250 per pupil with a maximum contribution of $500 per family. There are approximately 2,500 students in the District; taking an average family size, an assumption is being made that there are 1,250 families in the District. Based on these numbers, the fee program could generate approximately $625-650k per year and fund a more enriched art and music program.

· In comparison, the following Districts pay the following transportation fees (these are not regional school districts, and are therefore eligible to charge transportation fees):

· Chelmsford: $200 per pupil with a maximum of $500 per family.

· Lexington: $300 per pupil with a maximum of $900 per family

· Franklin: $375 per pupil with a maximum of $975 per family

· Shrewsbury: $250 per pupil with a maximum of $500 per family

· Westwood: $180 per pupil with a maximum of $450 per family

· Duxbury : $500 family cap

· Harvard: $225 per pupil with a maximum of $600 per family

The District already has a tuition-based program established for full day Kindergarten. So there is already an established means of accepting tuition from families in the District.

The Full Day Kindergarten Program also has a financial assistance program supporting it. A similarly financial assistance program needs to be in place to support an arts and music program.

Understandably, a large number of residents in the Towns find themselves in a position where they cannot trust the School Committee, the School District Administrators, and the Town Administrators. A fee-based program directly supporting arts and music ensures that the revenue raised through these efforts would go directly to support our children.

This fee-based program will create a sustainable revenue source.

The fee-based program would have to be designed with strict policies - in particular, any raises in fees would have to be voted

upon at Town Meeting.

Households without children in the district could also be welcomed to donate money towards the art/music program. As one of the significant ways to maintain your property value is to maintain a competitive school that offers enriched programs.

Perhaps the program could be piloted for FY15 or FY16. This may be a more acceptable way of implementing to determine howwell it works; a permanent decision can be made once information about the pilot program is available.

Groton Herald

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