For our April issue, Scotland’s First Selectman Gary Greenberg sent us “News from the Committee Studying Educational Cost Sharing”, an overview of the governance and financial structure of the proposed cooperative agreement for combining Hampton and Scotland elementary schools, its amendment and termination, and considerations of special education and the school building. We thank Mr. Greenberg for providing us this month with information on the all-important matters of educational programs, savings and costs, and encourage residents to review the material here, and on the committee’s website, prior to the upcoming public informational sessions, and the advisory vote.
Ad Hoc Committee Reports Educational Cost Sharing
The Ad Hoc Committee exploring the possibility of a Hampton/Scotland cooperative school has two subcommittees. The Programming Subcommittee has been putting together a staffing plan and model budget for the coop school. Its work has been slow and painstaking, primarily because we want the result to be as accurate as possible in its predictions. The information below is current as of May 27, but is still subject to revision.
Working with data from the schools, the towns, and the state, and using the October 1, 2021 student population for its model, the subcommittee has determined that a coop school would have 14.2 full time equivalent (FTE) certified teaching positions, covered by 17 teachers, ten of whom would be full-time. Nine of the full-time teachers would be assigned to a classroom; each grade, K through six, would have its own classroom and teacher. Pre-K would have two classrooms and two teachers. The 10th full-time slot would be for combined physical education and health instruction. Three of the certified teaching positions represent special education instructors with 2.5 FTE. The remaining 1.7 FTE slots would be allotted to art (0.4 FTE), library/media (0.4 FTE), music (0.6 FTE), and technology (0.3). By way of comparison, Scotland currently has 12.2 FTE staff covering those same positions, and Hampton has 8.8. Scotland currently has eight full-time classroom teachers for Pre-k through grade six, while Hampton has five.
The staffing plan calls for 14 paraprofessionals. Scotland currently has 11 (which will be reduced to eight next year), and Hampton has seven (which will be reduced to six next year). The coop school would have a half-time (.5 FTE) superintendent (both towns currently have a .4 FTE superintendent), a .6 FTE special education director (currently .4 in Scotland and .2 in Hampton), a full-time principal, a full-time nurse, a .5 FTE speech and language pathologist, a full-time counselor, and 5.4 FTE support staff. The full staffing plan and associated salary and benefit costs are available on the committee website at www.hs-interdistrictcommittee.org.
The model budget associated with the staffing plan calls for total cooperative school costs of $2.9 million. The local Boards of Education would continue to be responsible for transportation and out-of-district placement to both STEM and special education schools. Those local costs, especially the special education placements, are very difficult to predict. But based on our past history, they are estimated at around $340,000 in total, with each town responsible for about 50% of these costs. The cooperative school total budget expenses would be allocated on a per-pupil basis. Using this year’s student population as a model, Hampton’s share of the $2.9 million cooperative school budget would be approximately $1.20 million, and its local costs would be $170,706 (which excludes transportation of Region#11 students), for a total of $1.37 million. Hampton currently spends $2.12 million for the same student population. Scotland’s share would be $1.7 million, and its local costs would be $168,000, for a total of $1.88 million. It currently spends $2.54 million for the same student population. The total savings would be $1.39 million, of which $650,000 would go to Scotland and $743,000 to Hampton (excluding Region#11 transportation expenses of $62,325).
These numbers are still being refined and will be updated on the website. It is important to note that grant funding, which amounts to between $100,000 and $200,000 each year in each town is partially figured into these estimates, and the impact of a cooperative agreement on grant funding has not yet been determined. It is likely that there will be very little or no impact but grant funding itself is unpredictable. We will present our best estimate once we have more information. Also important to note is that the ad hoc committee is not recommending what the towns or Boards of Education should do with potential savings; it is possible that the Boards of Education and the Cooperative Committee will choose to use some of the money to fund enrichment programs, such as foreign language instruction, or enhance current curriculum by adding a STEM program, like through the CT Science Center
Although there is no official timeline, the subcommittee hopes to have its work finished soon. Once it is complete, the final spreadsheets and report will be posted and public information sessions will be held to present and discuss our findings, along with the completed version of the proposed agreement that will govern the cooperative school. After those presentations, an advisory vote will be held so residents can let the Boards of Education know their preference about this proposal. The final version of the agreement will be turned over to the BOEs for their consideration. If they vote to enter into an agreement, it will go to the Town Meetings in each town, which must approve of the change in use of the school buildings. If both BOEs and both Town Meetings vote to adopt this proposal, it will go into effect on the date chosen by the BOEs, and transition planning will begin.
Gary Greenberg
Please visit the website for the latest updates to the staffing plan and model budget. And feel free to email any questions to Gary Greenberg at firstselectman@scotlandct.org.