EXPANDING THE RALPH C. MAHAR REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

1. EXPANDING THE RALPH C. MAHAR REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates Key Questions, Key Concerns, Common Interests

2. THREE POINTS OF VIEW • Regionalization is the silver bullet that will improve schools, save money and promote a coherent system of governance and management. • Regionalization will cost money, reduce local control, and degrade educational quality. • Regionalization, intelligently and collaboratively done, will allow schools and districts to re-direct scarce resources from offices to classrooms. Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

3. KEY QUESTIONS of this study • Are the Mahar educational partners (Orange, Petersham, New Salem, Wendell) getting the most out of their educational dollars? • Through expansion of the Mahar region, or similar organizational re-structuring, could the schools and districts re-direct resources from management to education? • Are there educational advantages to regionalization? Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

4. THREE POSSIBILITIES THAT WILL ENCOURAGE INVESTIGATION OF REGIONALIZATION • Local control can be enhanced through intelligent regionalization. • Students will end up with a wider variety and greater depth of quality educational programs. • Schools and districts will be more resilient during tough financial times Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

5. AVOIDING THE NEGATIVES • Lost of local control (budget, education, school) • One-size-fits-all approach to education • Duplication of management services • Reducing school budgets to the ‘lowest common denominator’ Or • Raising school budgets to a level that towns cannot afford Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

6. CURRENT STATUS: THE CONCERNS ARE OUTWEIGHING THE POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES • Must work to neutralize the concerns • Then the advantages will be free to operate • Clearer situation for some towns than others Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

7. A SENSE OF URGENCY, A SENSE OF CAUTION, BOTH WARRANTED • Urgency • If we don’t do something to make districts more efficient, we’ll end up cutting educational services if (or as) the fiscal crisis continues • Caution • If we regionalize in haste, or do so without great carefulness, we may make matters worse. • Important to respect both perceptions, and still move forward Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

8. CENTRAL OFFICE CONFIGURATIONS ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE • Too many duties, too many hours, too much unconnected with improving education • Have cut central office rather than cut educational services • Is reaching a tipping point • You have dedicated, competent and hard-working administrators and teachers throughout the system, but… no one can work effectively 80 hours a week Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

9. THE STATE REVENUE PICTURE IS GETTING WORSE • Chapter 70 cuts for FY11 • Transportation Reimbursement? • Special Education Circuit Breaker Reimbursement? • How will districts adjust? Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

10. THE STAKES ARE NOT THE SAME FOR ALL TOWNS • All four towns are enjoying the benefits of a region for grades 7-12 • Wendell and New Salem are already enjoying many of the advantages of a region, through the Union 28 Supervisory Union, for K-6 • Petersham and Orange are not Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

11. WHY HAS REGIONALIZATION NOT OCCURRED ALREADY? (ACROSS THE STATE AND IN THE REGION) • A question of territory? Or • Structural obstacles? • Delegation of running of schools to a regional central office (loss of local control) • Most regions share a unified budget for elementary schools (finding an average between two extremes) • District-wide seniority can erode the culture that develops within community-based schools • One large town and three small ones – can create structural imbalances on the school committee Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

12. NEUTRALIZING THE NEGATIVES… Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

13. WHAT’S LIKELY TO HAPPEN IF WE DO NOTHING? (THERE’S NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS, BUT DOING NOTHING GUARANTEES FAILURE) • Someone else will choose the structures and partners for us. • We will continue to waste precious local dollars on duplication of services. • We will continue to devote administrative time to management and governance rather than education. • We will continue to have students enter 7th grade with very different levels of preparation. • We will continue to lose essential educational services, as costs increase and revenue falls. Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

14. COMMON CONCERNS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND THEIR TOWNS • Educational autonomy • Fiscal fairness • Community-based governance Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

15. MAINTAINING EDUCATIONAL AUTONOMY • Guaranteeing that existing elementary schools will stay open • Providing for building-based seniority • Ensuring a central office focus on K-6 education Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

16. ENSURING FISCAL FAIRNESS • A budgetary approval process that would allow Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham to continue to fund their town elementary schools at levels that they deem appropriate • Allocation plan: a way to share expenses and services in a partially regionalized district • Admission of school choice students to town elementary schools be based on a local decision-making process regarding space availability and school goals for class size • Some sharing of the revenues received by the district for school choice students be credited to the school budget in which the choice child enrolls Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

17. MAINTAINING COMMUNITY-BASED GOVERNANCE • A governance structure that would ensure that Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham could continue to exercise direct, community-based input into educational decision-making at their local elementary schools Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

18. FINDING THE POSITIVES… Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

19. ENVISIONING A NEW MODEL • Empowered school-community councils. • Central office leadership focused on improving education. • Efficient use of scarce local tax dollars. • A model of process and product that other communities could use. • Increased educational specialization within Mahar region schools. Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

20. REGION-WIDE MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS • Region-wide union contracts (teachers, paraprofessionals, administration, maintenance and custodial) • Region-wide health insurance system • Region-wide student transportation system (regular and special education) • Region-wide special education management • Region-wide networks of specialized education (autism, gifted and talented, career and technical) • Region-wide professional development center for educators (teachers, administrators, etc.) Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

21. POTENTIAL GAINS FROM INCREASED REGIONALIZATION • Making Better Use Of Leadership Time   • Banding Together On Fiscal Matters   • Providing Shared Professional Development for Teachers Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

22. DISTRICT GOVERNANCE • An Expanded District is a New District   • Central Office Staffing   • A Transition Plan for Central Office   • Selection of School Committee Members Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

23. EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION (done properly) • Significant amounts of management costs could be re-directed to maintaining and improving quality education. • A re-constituted central office management team could provide specialized leadership in special education, elementary education, ELL and so on. • An expanded K-12 Mahar would provide increased professional development opportunities for teachers, para-professionals, and central office educational leaders. Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

24. EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION (DONE PROPERLY) • Best practices could be investigated and replicated throughout the district’s schools. • Remediation and alignment time and costs at grade 7 and above could be reduced. • Schools could combine their resources to offer appropriate programs for relatively ‘low-incidence’ populations of students (ELL, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral programs etc.). • Schools could combine their resources to develop and implement programs for gifted and talented students. Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

25. FISCAL ADVANTAGES OF REGIONALIZATION • Central office business functions could be shared across a much larger group • Significant savings might be found in health insurance costs • Regional transportation reimbursement would increase substantially • Extraordinary special education costs could be shared across a larger district • Regional bargaining unit contracts would substantially reduce administrative time and district costs of negotiations • A larger district would be more stable and robust in the face of declines in federal and / or state education funding Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

26. KEY COMPONENTS OF A REVISED REGIONAL AGREEMENT • Differential funding of elementary schools • Community-based governance of elementary schools • Building-based seniority in elementary schools • User-based allocation plan for shared costs (hybrid region) • At-large election of school committee members, with residency requirement Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

27. KEY ELEMENTS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED OUTSIDE THE REGIONAL AGREEMENT • Incremental, partial, parallel or hybrid regionalization (DESE policy and regulation) • Building-based seniority in elementary schools (negotiations with bargaining units) • Differential funding of elementary schools within a region (statute, DESE policy and practice) Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

28. POSSIBLE PARTNERS IN FURTHER EXPLORATION OR NEGOTIATION • DESE Center for School Finance, Planning, Research & Evaluation (Christine Lynch, Associate Commissioner Jeffrey Wulfson) • W. Mass Legislative team • Bargaining units for all districts • The Center for Collaborative Education (Pilot Schools Project) Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates

29. NEXT STEPS • Recommendations of the Planning Team   • Building Support Among Member Towns   • Gathering Further Information Ken Rocke - Curriculum Design Associates