Dear Town Council,
I'm writing to request the following, and have summarized my reasons below.
- Town Administrator, Jamie Hellen, present four options to reduce the municipal side of the town budget ($1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million) to allocate to FPS and help stabilize the district, and be presented at your next public meeting.
- The Town Council vote to put another override on the November ballot for the upcoming presidential election.
- The Town's Charter be amended to define an objective percentage of around 65% of the town's total revenue for annual allocations to the School Operating budget in perpetuity (budget line 300).
I'm writing to request that the Town Administrator, Jamie Hellen, present four options to reduce the municipal side of the town budget ($1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million) to allocate to FPS and help stabilize the district, and be presented at your next public meeting. Similar to how our Superintendent presented 'The Tale of Four Budgets". These must be permanent reductions, not one time reductions in salary increases, 'rainy day' or stabilization funds. Assisting the school's operating budget with one time funding would be detrimental to our goal of stability for the district going forward.
I have heard from members of the Town Council that the Town Administrator had been preparing for this possibility and had these options ready to present. The community needs to know what the Town Council is willing to cut, to salvage school programs and positions. It's important this happen publicly and on record to avoid misinformation spreading among the residents of Franklin.
To give examples of misinformation that has prevented progress for our district, I'll point out two narratives that were detrimental to the override effort.
First, our Town Administrator has consistently stated that the town's operational budget deficit is due to school budget mismanagement.
To quote from one email "we have done the right thing to manage our budget and the schools have not."
To quote from Jamie Hellen's 2023/24 budget narrative (which was extremely editorial overall) the schools are "avoiding bold and challenging decisions and kicking the can down the road" and that "the schools have continued to work in a bubble and not work with town leaders on town finances."
These "bold decisions" of course mean school consolidation.
This spring, during an April Finance Committee meeting, George Conley, our finance committee chair, and Jamie Hellen, Town Administrator, chuckled over Mr. Conley's statement that he could redistrict 'with a crayon by drawing a line down the middle'. This was extremely disrespectful to the parents and students in our community, and to our Superintendent and his administrative team.
Also, at the high school forum held this April to discuss the override, a citizen asked, "How can we be expected to open our wallets without knowing the results of the redistricting analysis?" Our Town Administrator answered, "I could have it for you in two hours." This question should have been redirected to our Superintendent, who fortunately was aware enough to speak up and clarify that the redistricting analysis and the proposed override were not mutually exclusive. However, this led many in the community to demand the results of the analysis immediately. The School Committee was told that without it, the Town Council would not support our request to fully fund the budget through a town-wide election.
Though the timing wasn't ideal, the School Committee made the analysis public and worked tirelessly alongside our Superintendent to educate the community. We were also put in a difficult position, combating misinformation about the motives of the redistricting. The work was in progress and will result in amazing and equitable opportunities for our children's education. However, because of the narratives above, many in the community were accusatory and disrespectful of our decision, believing it was financially motivated. The benefits to our operating budget are minimal compared to the massive benefits this decision will have on improving the educational outcomes of our students.
Just as we saw with the closing of Davis Thayer, consolidation of schools will not solve the school operating budget deficit. The educators move along with the students, and therefore have little impact on our school operating budget (budget line 300).
Our Town Administrator and elected leaders should have been helping the School Committee educate the community around the true cost drivers of the budget as they are systemic; transportation, special education, health care, out of district tuitions, technology, and mental health supports. Pointing fingers at our School Department was not helpful to our school committee as we advocated for our needs, and sought the support of the community at large.
Another topic that has been discussed many times in public settings inappropriately, is the teachers raises. These were negotiated in collective bargaining, and resulted in a three year contract of 4% each year for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
To quote a recent email from our Town Administrator, "the 12% raises for teachers put the schools in a structural deficit". Our structural deficit existed well before the 4-4-4 raises were negotiated.
Our superintendent responsibly accounted for the raises in his 2023 budget recommendation by making reductions of $800k. In that same year, our district was blindsided by an uncontrollable increase in 'out of district tuition' which amounted to just under $800k. Instead of educating our community on this point, our Town Administrator continued to speak about the teachers contract as "reckless" and "irresponsible". This rhetoric has been repeated by Town Council members to stakeholders in our community.
Instead of disparaging teacher salary increases, Town Council members could have simply explained to those concerned, that police, fire and DPW salaries were already competitive with neighboring communities. Franklin teacher salaries were near the bottom of the list in comparison, and it would have been irresponsible not to begin addressing this discrepancy. Councilor Deb Pellegri stated publicly in the 2023 budget hearings that she 'was personally offended' by the raises. This narrative has perpetuated a distrust in our district's ability to manage the school operating budget, contributing to the failed override.
The School Committee has also been publicly blamed for our town's inaction to address this structural deficit by not 'writing a letter' to request an override. There is no legal requirement or policy that requires an override be proposed solely by our school committee. This commentary is untrue and unprofessional.
It was also unprofessional during the budget hearings of 2023 when at the last minute, schools were allocated less than had been previously earmarked for no reason, resulting in the lowest allocation given historically. The Town Administrator returned two weeks later and pulled $800k from fire and police for the school budget. Many saw this as retaliatory toward the teacher raises, and it was questioned by Councilor Frongillo for an explanation. This had our school administration scrambling in June to make budget reductions before graduation. This exacerbated the division among town employees, and needlessly caused the loss of at least two educators in our district. First, our middle school chorus teacher (who was laid off, and signed with another district before that money was "found" so we could try and get her back) as well as our middle school orchestra teacher, who left on her own accord citing this budget season's volatility as her reason for resigning. I would also be remiss to not mention that while scrambling to manage this fallout, our district was grieving the devastating loss of two FPS students. I mention this, because the undue stress that these frivolous actions have on our school district is inexcusable.
I would like to officially request the Town Council vote to put another override on the November ballot for the upcoming presidential election. It's been said time and time again that the pot is not big enough. Our Town Council must advocate for the educators and children of our district. We are one town, and we need leadership more than ever to bring this town together. It's critical that all dialogue between leadership be transparent and conducted in public meetings so that residents are aware of how and why decisions are made.
There is distrust in our leadership. We must have transparency, and accountability. Stakeholders were concerned that our Town Administrator was presenting incorrect projections around the potential override. He doubled down on incorrect numbers many times before conceding that Paul Griffith and I had identified the miscalculation.
I would also like to request that the Town's Charter be amended to define a minimum percentage of 65% of the town's total revenue be allocated to the School Operating budget in perpetuity (budget line 300). This will instill confidence with the residents of Franklin that their money will be allocated appropriately and consistently to the schools.
This request is urgent. This meeting should happen as soon as possible, and the Town Council should meet before the regularly scheduled June 26th date.
I look forward to hearing from you all on how we can work together to create a more sustainable future for Franklin.
Regards,
Ruthann O'Sullivan
Franklin School Committee
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| Voices of Franklin: Ruthann O'Sullivan writes a letter to the Town Council |
