Right now, the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District still does not have a budget, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said at the School Committee’s meeting on Wednesday, June 5.
He also responded to a rumor “floating around” – as well as the question of what happens if there is still no budget after Hanson’s special Town Meeting at 6:30 p.m., Monday, June 17.
“That’s a reality in our district, if we don’t have a budget by June 30, we now have to make some modifications, he said.
If the district has to report failure to reach a budget agreement by the new fiscal year on July 1, the Commissioner of Education will put the district on a 1/12 budget based on last year’s fiscal 2014 budget – at either the exact amount or over it.
“When the district went through the scenario in 2020, it was the exact amount for the month of July and, realistically for the School District, the month of July is not a fiscal crunch for us because our teachers are paid before they leave [in a fiscal ’24 scenario],” Szymaniak said. The next large pay period, under a fiscal 2024 budget is not until August.
But because it is about a $2.5 million deficit, Szymaniak must make sure, in the absence of a budget to prepare for the worst.
That means, if the district is still without a budget by August or September, he said he has to make sure the district has a plan to reduce the budget by $2.5 million – which is teachers.
“But, as I have reminded, if I have to Pink Slip, or RIF [Reduction in Force] teachers, I have to come up with 40 percent of their unemployment costs as of the day they are RIF’ed. So I have to look at the long game, and be prepared for a no-budget into August, September, October, November into December. In December, if I still don’t have a budget, the commissioner will give us a budget.”
That spending plan will be taken out of the towns’ hands and says, ‘This is your budget for the year,’” he said, as school starts up again in September.
“Looking at the numbers, he said [Whitman Finance Committee member Kathleen] Ottina was a little short on the number of RIFs that we’ll have to give out,], Szymaniak said. [See story page 11] The teachers’ contract says Reduction in Force letters should be out by May 30, if possible, and no later than June 30. Teachers leave for the summer on June 13 and Town Meeting is June 17.
“To try to avoid mass anxiety, because I’m optimistic that we’re going to pass a budget, because the School Committee has affirmed a budget without cuts,” he said. “We already know that.”
He said he has already crunched numbers and would try to get that information out to the staff by this week. The district had already posted six positions he’s wanted to fill from retirements and other such departures.
“But I’m not going to hire anybody if I don’t have a budget, so that reduces the RIF letters by six,” he said. A second tier of 26 WHEA members two central office and three district employees would receive RIFs because he has to come up with $3.3 million in cuts to cover the $2.5 million that might be real on a 1/12 budget, because of unemployment costs.
In that number, he took $540,000 [which is not set in stone, he stressed], asking the School Committee to not support varsity and sub-varsity sports and extracurriculars, which cost the district $538,000.
“That’s seven, eight or nine teachers that I don’t want to RIF at this point,” he said. “This is all hypothetical unless we don’t have a budget. But it could be real in August, if we don’t.”
He said he would not make the cuts unless the district ends up without a budget on June 17.
“It’s imperative for parents … to go to the meeting and talk,” he said. “I’m not telling you how to vote. Go to the meeting, at least and hear.”
If there is no budget by the end of the June 17 meeting, Szymaniak and Assistant Superintendent George Ferro will be sending out Reduction in Force letters on the morning of Tuesday, June 18.
“I don’t know where they are coming from,” he said, “But they are coming from classrooms, they’re coming from related arts, and it’s our first- and second-year staff members, or people that might even be a little bit more [veteran] if they’re a district-wide employee.”
Only staff in state-mandated roles would be safe from cuts.
Communicating cuts
“I’m trying to be as honest with the committee as possible, without [causing] as much fear to our staff members, but this is a reality if we push into late August,” he said.
Whitman has already voted an assessment and would not have to act again unless the committee decided to increase the assessment. If a super-Town Meeting, a session with both communities, is required, a majority vote would pass a budget, which could be in place as early as mid-July.
“July, I can cover money, but if we go into the middle of August because the towns voted the budget down, the commissioner takes over and then it could come back to the School Committee again,” Szymaniak said. “We keep doing that until we have a budget, or until the commissioner says, ‘You’re not where you should be,’ and he just assesses a budget to the regional school district.”
By law the commissioner’s options are to increase what was asked for by the committee.
Committee member Glen DiGravio said he is concerned about how badly a 1/12 budget could affect the students.
“If it goes in, we’ve got a problem,” Szymaniak said. “Because as people start leaving, it becomes problematic.” He said he is looking at options that are least impactful to the staff.
Information on the staff cuts is being supplied to the Hanson Select Board for their information and to distribute to voters.
“People need to know that,” DiGravio said. “These kids matter, and they don’t get a vote, either.”
DiGravio also asked if athletics could be cut completely, which Szymaniak said was possible, although he doesn’t want to have to.
“But it’s an option – people need to know that, too.” DiGravio said.
“This is not a reduction of the school district’s budget,” Szymaniak said, “I’m just won’t have a budget, so I can’t, as the superintendent, say, ‘I’m going to cut eight classroom teachers and have a football team.’ … It’s not a scare tactic.”
Member Dawn Byers said she wants to make clear what Hanson’s assessment will be – $14,974,735 – noting that if the motion at Hanson’s special Town Meeting is the number is to approve the amount presented at the May 6 Town Meeting, that is not the number the School Committee voted.
“It’s important to know what number is being voted on,” she said, noting that the School Committee made the number workable.
Member Fred Small moved that Szymaniak write a letter to Hanson officials clarifying the exact amounts to be included on the warrant and to get back to him in a timely manner.
Szymaniak vs
the rumor mill
As for the rumor – one of the questions he was asked at that meeting were about hiring 31 people with one-time money – was something he said needed to be clarified.
He met with the Hanson Select Board last month, and while they did not agree on a few things, an understanding of transportation reimbursement, of special education reimbursement costs, came up.
“I wasn’t planning on talking,” he said, but Town Administrator Lisa Green raised the opportunity to ask him questions. Hires with the use of ARPA funds was also raised at the meeting.
“Just because we have in and outs, doesn’t mean I’m adding positions,” he said. “Teachers have been in and out since 2021 – maternities, resignations, non-renewals, retirements – positions that have been created are the additional ones, but even through those additions, I’ve subtracted other ones.”
Over the course of the Elementary and Secondary School Relief (ESSER) Act, which Szymaniak said was a godsend in some respects, the funds became a curse as well.
“You’re handed a lot of money with specifications around it, how do you spend it without making it the fiscal cliff that we’ve spoken to?” he said. “And I knew, if I went home and turned back $2.5 million to the state or the fed because I couldn’t spend it, this committee or the members of the town would say, ‘You had $2.5 million to spend and you didn’t spend it?’ ‘:How can you do that?’”
He argued that the school district made really effective, efficient decisions to benefit the students. Some of those decisions were in the line of interventionists and English-language learning support.
Since 2021, the district began by hiring four interventionists, but that only had an impact of 2.5 positions funded in the budget, because they reallocated people within the district to fill those positions, he explained. An elementary education coordinator was added and has since left, with the district refurbishing the position as salary to a human resource director, which the school district has needed for years. At the same time the elementary ed coordinator position was reconfigured into a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and equity.
Five building-level math interventionists were also hired.
“A lot of these folks were teachers, who went into these roles, so we hired teachers on top of that,” he said. “That’s not a plus-10, that’s a plus-five.”
Another nurse was hired to address real needs, especially pre- and post- COVID, especially in the preschool and high school. There had been only one nurse at the high school and a nurse that had been promised after the closing of the Maquan School had never been hired.
A district-wide family liaison was also hired and has been a valuable member of the administrative team with the growing student population who speak another language. Six English-language staff members – both teachers and tutors – to ensure the schools are providing the increased English-language learners that is required by law.
Szymaniak referred to the English-language learning program to quash an accompanying rumor.
“We do not house migrants in Whitman,” he said. “These are our students. They live in our communities, they are not coming in from the state. It’s not from the governor. These are our students. People have asked, because I’ve seen it on social media,”
He said the population of non-English-speaking students has grown incrementally since 2021.
“We need to service students by law, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Committee member Rosemary Connolly stressed that Szymaniak had 15 positions he legally had to full in the district, but he had done so with only 11 additional positions.
“I think that’s pretty remarkable,” she said. “You, essentially, worked your numbers quite well.”
Hanson Committee member Kara Moser also pointed out that, when pink slips go out to staff is it is needed to balance the budget, it will not include the newer hires if they are among the state mandated positions in the schools.
“If people philosophically disagree with an added position on this list, voting it down is not eliminating that position,” she said.
Byers asked about the title interventionist.
“That’s sort of a modern-day tutor – a reading tutor/specialist, a math tutor/specialist, is that correct?” she asked.
Szymaniak said they are certified teachers. Before 2018 the district had reading specialists, they are now called interventionists, and added math to that service.
“People hear this new term and they wonder if this is just a result of COVID again, so we’re not in COVID anymore, so we don’t need this,” Byers said. “We’re now presenting an educational budget that includes what we should have had, pre-COVID.”
Szymaniak said it is sometimes difficult to fulfill state mandates, especially when they are unfunded, but credited the School Committee and the towns with helping to support district curriculum, such as all-day kindergarten, that should have been offered about 15 years ago.
Back on the topic of added district staff, he said the two high school music teachers who retired last year have been replaced by three – all funded by the salaries of the retired teachers. An afterschool coordinator hire was grant-funded.
Also, an occupational therapist was hired to aid all district students in need of the services that had been contracted out.
“Really, It’s a total of 18 new positions,” he said.
In fiscal 2025, the district has lost seven positions – including former facilities director Ernest Sandland, who retired, and a groundskeeper and was not hired – make a total of 11 new positions brought on district-wide, “all of whom are benefitting our students and that’s what you approved and are supporting going into this fiscal non-budget, right now, in the town of Hanson,” Szymaniak said.
“There might have been 31 – there might have been 40 people that have revolved through the district since 2012 – paraprofessionals are fluid,” Szymaniak said. “Special education paraprofessionals, I don’t count because [if] I have a student that needs a one-to-one, that’s an add, we don’t have a choice for that.”
He also hired a preschool teacher because the class for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) room was “busting at the seams” with pupils.
“That’s not a wish, that’s a need,” he said.
The state gave the district three rounds of ESSER money since 2021.
“We knew there was going to be a cliff [and] we worked in our office to try to massage the budget as best we could to make sure there wasn’t a $2.5 million end date, like some districts,” Szymaniak said, mentioning that they knew they would come up with a deficit this year, as they have.
Chair Beth Stafford said the number of “new hires” had started out at 35.
“We saw the result of doing this,” she said noting that district test scores are now “even better than before COVID. That’s our job here, the improvement of the kids.”
Vice Chair Hillary Kniffen said an error on the DESE website has people drawing incorrect class size information, as the site includes all personnel, with a degree in education to arrive at that number.
“If you are not in education – this is going to sound bad – but, you can’t go on the DESE website and think they know what information they’re trying to get across,” she said.
Szymaniak pointed to politics.
“If you actually showed 30:1 ratios in a school district, people would be all over the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for more state funding for schools,” he said.