WILMINGTON, MA — At its meeting last week, the Wilmington School Committee unanimously backed signing on to a resolution calling for full funding of the state’s Foundation Budget Review Commission’s Recommendations.
The resolution was put forwarded by the Suburban Coalition, a statewide organization of local officials that advocates for the resources, funding and support at the state level to sustain vibrant communities throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
As explained by the Suburban Coalition:
The Foundation Budget Review Commission (FRBC) was established by the Legislature in the FY16 budget and was charged with examining the Foundation Budget (Chapter 70) formula. The formula was first established as part of the Education Reform legislation in 1993 and has not been thoroughly reviewed or updated since that time. The FBRC found that the current formula understates costs significantly in two areas: Employee Health Insurance and Special Education.
If the recommendations of the FBRC had been implemented in the FY16 budget, state funding for education would have been about $500 million more than it was. However, if Chapter 70 reflected the true cost of education, the number would be closer to $2 billion.
The Foundation Budget, as explained by School Superintendent Mary DeLai, is the minimum amount of money necessary to provide an adequate education to the students in a district. It’s widely held that the foundation budget in Massachusetts is sorely lacking.
School Committee members Peggy Kane and MJ Byrnes brought the resolution in front of the committee after learning about it from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
“We’re definitely underfunded in Wilmington in both [Health Insurance and Special Education],” stated School Committee Chairwoman Peggy Kane. “We need to let the legislators know that this has to be worked on. It’s well past time.”
“I’m elated to see this resolution,” said School Committee member MJ Byrnes. “You can’t ignore this any longer,” noting the foundation formula hasn’t been updated in 23 years.
“Certain line items of the foundation budget for Wilmington are significantly underfunded by the foundation formula,” Superintendent DeLai told Wilmington Apple after the meeting. “Health insurance costs, for example, are underfunded by around $6 million. However, there are other line items that are over-funded. Not knowing how the recommendations would get implemented, it’s hard to say how much more we would get.”
DeLai has already sent copies of the resolution on to Town Manager Jeff Hull, with the hopes that the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee will consider it at upcoming meetings.
Read the resolution, in its entirety, HERE.
Watch the School Committee meeting, courtesy of Wilmington Community Television, below. Discussion on the funding resolution begins at 56:15 and lasts a few minutes.
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