Rochester officials, residents concerned with major special education funding shortfall

ROCHESTER — Special education costs have risen nearly $1 million for the upcoming year, and with a budget already stretched to the limit, Rochester is struggling to fund it.

During a Wednesday, April 22 meeting between the Select Board, Financial Committee and School Committee, officials and community members discussed how to provide these mandatory services and why special education is so important. The three groups met together to review several questions about school funding that will be posed to voters during Town Meeting on Monday, May 18.

While Rochester isn’t the only town facing a ballooning school budget due to rising costs and inflation, special education funding has risen unusually high due to new students in need of costly services who recently moved to town. T

owns are required to provide special education services to students who need them. Some students need a higher level of service than Rochester schools can provide, and attend school out-of-district. This is the most expensive scenario, and while uncommon it is sometimes necessary.

With $200,000 secured for the town by State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, along with a proposal to supplement the school budget with $250,000 from the town, there is still a significant gap between available funds and the $800,000 the district needs for special education.

A proposal to allocate $100,000 from free cash to an unemployment fund drew the most conversation after Select Board Chair Adam Murphy suggested the funds would better serve special education.

Municipalities are exempt from paying into unemployment insurance, but are required to pay the cost of that insurance upfront if employees are laid off. This means if teachers are fired because the school can’t afford them, the town will draw from the proposed $100,000 fund to cover the cost of their unemployment.

Without balancing the current budget, layoffs are inevitable. Murphy said instead of guaranteeing teacher layoffs by not covering the deficit, and funding their unemployment with money from the town’s savings, the funds should instead be used to pay their salaries.

As he explained it, the money will be spent either way. He said the choice is between using that money to pay teachers to work, or pay them to stay home.

“What I think is most fiscally responsible is not using $100,000 to react to a layoff based on special education, but use that money to put those people back in,” he said.

After further discussion, the Select Board and Financial Committee gave the original article their stamp of approval. Because layoffs may reach further than just teachers, the two groups agreed the funds should go to unemployment.

Michael Nelson, the superintendent of the Old Rochester Regional district, said he is glad Rochester received state funds to help support special education and said it is a sign state legislators are “listening more than they ever have” to the needs of their constituents.

He said while special education is a huge chunk of the town’s budget, he wanted to remind people why it’s so important to fund.

“Oftentimes when we talk about special education needs and the cost, sometimes the why behind it gets lost,” Nelson said. “I want to be very clear for the public that where these dollars are going, these are for some of our most vulnerable students in our school community.”

Select Board member Paul Ciaburri said in a small, rural town such as Rochester, there’s not enough money to fund everything. With these limited funds, he said the support of representatives is especially important.

“Everybody should be really cognizant of who you vote for, because most of the problems that we’re experiencing right now are because of our state not funding what they're supposed to be funding,” Ciaburri said.

School Committee members and residents liked Murphy’s suggestion to direct more funds to special education, even though the idea wasn’t ultimately approved.

Committee member Robin Rounseville said she supports any additional funding to employ teachers, even if they aren’t retained long-term.

“I think I can speak for everyone that we would be grateful to have anyone that we could keep at our school, even if it's just for one more year,” she said.

Resident Isabelle Gomes McCann said Rochester’s schools are made great by the people who fill them, and she wants to see town funds used to employ as many current teachers as possible.

Ciaburri said the funding shortfall isn’t because the Select Board doesn’t support schools or teachers, but is because of strained finances.

“This town has always supported schools 100%, and we still do. Problem is, we're out of money,” he said.