The fiscal 2020 state budget proposed by the House of Representatives last week contained a nasty surprise for Harvard. The amount the town will pay for students who attend a charter school in the 2019-2020 school year could rise as much as 40 percent, throwing Harvard’s fiscal 2020 budget into deficit with less than two weeks remaining until Annual Town Meeting. The new estimate is based on the number of Harvard students who have preregistered to attend Parker School at Devens.
The new numbers are contained in a document known as the “cherry sheet,” released by the Department of Local Services last Friday, which is the department’s estimate of how much local aid and other money the town can expect to receive from the state as well as what it can expect to pay for state-mandated programs. The budget submitted to the Legislature by Governor Charlie Baker earlier this year forecast virtually no increase in so-called charter school “sending tuition,” but the new House estimate predicts the amount could increase by more than $120,000, from $272,214 to $392,657.
The immediate impact of the new numbers is to throw next fiscal year’s budget out of balance, from a surplus of $69,064 to a deficit of $19,729, according to a new projection prepared by Town Administrator Tim Bragan and the Finance Department this week. The state requires a balanced budget, so cuts will have to be found, Bragan told the Select Board Tuesday night. To alter the budget that appears in this year’s Town Meeting booklet, which residents will receive this week, amendments will have to be made on the floor of Annual Town Meeting.
The deficit, however, threatens more than departmental and school spending. Town officials had hoped to use the expected surplus to pay for the proposed bylaw that would cap the property taxes of qualified seniors. If the bylaw passes at Town Election May 7, the town must find an estimated $60,000 elsewhere in the budget to pay for the first year of the cap, according to Bragan. He has asked the School Committee and administration to meet with him and the Finance Committee next Wednesday, May 1, to consider options.
The surprise increase is due entirely to an increase in the number of Harvard students expected to attend a charter school next year. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, that number will increase from 17 students this academic year to 24 in the next. The cost to the town of each student who elects to attend a charter school is approximately $16,400. By contrast, the town is charged $5,000 per student who attends another public school through the state’s School Choice program.
The fiscal 2020 omnibus budget—Article 11 in this year’s Town Meeting warrant—is based on figures that were known when Governor Baker submitted his budget to the Legislature in January. Charter school enrollments aren’t due until later, but according to Bragan, the real number of charter students won’t be known until August or September.
In an email, Harvard Public School Superintendent Linda Dwight said she was uncertain of the reasons for the increase. To learn more, she said, she was planning to talk with the principal of the Parker School at Devens. She said she expected to interview families that were planning to send their children there to further understand their reasons. The 24 students who planned to attend have preregistered, she said, though at least one has yet to make a final decision. Some are siblings of students who already attend the school. “We are aware that charter schools provide a valuable alternative to the Bromfield experience,” she wrote.
