By Corinne Hogseth
The pro-override contingent keeps insisting an override is necessary because municipal and school expenses cannot possibly grow at only 2.5% annually over time. That would probably be true if the entities were providing the same services to the same number of residents and/or students. However, in Acton-Boxborough, we have nearly 1,000 fewer students than we did 15 years ago.
I’ll stick to the last ten years since regionalization. In that period, total enrollment is down 566 students. The budget has increased by 39%; compared to cumulative inflation since 2014 of 32%, that doesn’t sound so bad. But when we look at per pupil spending, it’s a much different story.
Per pupil spending in 2015 was $13,464. This year, per pupil spending is $20,832. That’s a 55% increase! The district is projecting steady enrollment levels for the next 10 years. So, if the override passes and enrollment is the same next year, spending would go up to $22,432 per student in FY25, for a total increase of 67% in ten years!
Between 2019 and 2021 alone — a period of steep enrollment decline — the district lost 364 students. Per pupil spending increased 13% while total inflation was 5.81%.
Our problems have nothing to do with inflation — growth in budgets and per pupil spending has exceeded inflation for years — and everything to do with providing “level services” to a dwindling school population. And their definition of “level services” is last year’s budget plus ~3%.
If per pupil spending had gone up at the same rate of inflation, the district would have saved nearly $40M over the last ten years. If we assume spending would have gone up somewhere between 32% and 66% over the last decade, could $20M have been saved?
We’ll never know, because we have had neither a School Committee serious about controlling costs, nor a Select Board or Finance Committee willing to demand any budgetary restraint from district. It’s time to demand that each of our boards fulfill their unique obligations to residents, students and taxpayers by voting NO on Tuesday.
The override will be decided on the ballot at the annual town election to be held at the RH Grey Junior High School on April 30, between 7 am and 8 pm.
Do we have any information available on the rate of change of school district budgets in similar communities? That might be useful to benchmark against, versus using CPI alone.
You are welcome to dig that out. https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/finance.aspx?orgcode=03440000&orgtypecode=5&&fycode=2014. Per pupil spend can bee seen on the Finance tab; most recent data is 2022.
My quick analysis shows that AB’s inflation on per pupil spending is right in the middle of pack of peers (as defined by this DESE website). I will also note, however, that only 3 of the 10 peer communities spend more per pupil than AB — Sharon and Westborough are in the same range, but Lexington is an outlier.
One thing to consider is that various components of inflation may vary considerably, and that generally healthcare cost inflation tends to outpace other areas. I don’t know the precise breakdown, but I imagine that the school district’s costs may be more sensitive to changes in healthcare costs than the CPI.
You’re probably right, because about 80% of the school budget is salary + benefits. But if the School Committee and administration know this (doubtful, as they’re not deep thinkers), they need to anticipate it in their planning. They can’t keep signing contracts with the teachers’ union that bake in 4% average salary increases. Or I guess they can, but then they should expect to fire some teachers — which is really the crux of the issue here.
And only 29% of families in Acton have children in the school system, yet the school budget consumes two-thitds of the total budget.