The Old Rochester Regional School Committee settled an accounting mistake at its March 14 meeting, which has implications both large and small for the town budgets of Mattapoisett, Rochester and Marion.
Last year, the town of Rochester’s Treasurer discovered that the Plymouth County Retirement Association had been overcharging Rochester for pensions for several ORR district staff – which should have been shared more evenly across the towns. Instead of charging the towns directly, the retirement payments should have been part of the PCRA assessment to ORR, which in turn would be assessed to each town based on the enrollment percentage.
“I’m not sure if everyone realized the magnitude of the problem,” Town Administrator Richard LaCamera said to the school committee, noting that Rochester paid out $200,469 in pension benefits over the past decade when it should have paid only $105,223 through the district.
While Mattapoisett is only marginally affected by the mistake and would owe about $9,070 to make up their portion of the costs – Marion was undercharged to the tune of $86,174.
District Business Administrator Katie Isernio said that several meetings have taken place with PCPA staff, Tri-Town and school officials to rectify the problem. With numbers in hand, Isernio laid out three scenarios for the committee to choose: Marion and Mattapoisett would pay back their portion in one, two or three years.
“The town of Marion said it would like it over two years,” Isernio informed the committee, as no Marion town officials were present at the meeting. That way their payments would be staggered over multiple years and have less of an immediate drastic impact.
LaCamera made clear at the meeting that he wants Marion and Mattapoisett to pay their share – about $95,245 in total – during the next fiscal year to account for the loss.
“Since we’ve been discussing this during two budget periods, we want to get this over with,” he said. “From Marion’s side, they are in a lot better financial shape since we have paid the bulk of the money over the past nine years. We need the money and we need it resolved.”
In the end, the committee voted 5-2 on the side of LaCamera and rejected Superintendent Doug White’s suggestion for them to authorize ORR to broker an agreement.
“It does seem we have taken the brunt of the hit,” Robin Rounseville said, a Rochester resident and school committee member. Thomas Shire was the sole Marion resident in attendance at the meeting, and he voted against the measure. Marion School Committee member Joseph Scott was absent.
As a result of the vote, Rochester will have $95,245 more in its general FY2013 town budget. Marion will have $86,174 less in its town budget for next year due to the vote.
In other major business, the school committee officially approved ORR’s $16,639,305 budget for next fiscal year. Seven paraprofessional staff positions are eliminated in the budget. Savings from a modified bus contract and a more favorable utilities agreement provided additional revenue that helped prevent deeper cuts.
Also at the meeting, ORR High School Principal Michael Devoll received approval to overhaul two student handbook policies. One policy would limit the number of directed study blocks (free periods for studying) for one per semester. The other policy would make it more difficult for a student to drop a class. Students will only be able to withdraw from a class if they need to drop a level, and this can only happen following a joint meeting with their guidance counselor, teacher, parent and principal.
“It’s been too easy for kids to take the easy way out,” Devoll said. Also, he said the class sizes have become disproportionate as a result. “It wreaks havoc on the scheduling… it is detrimental to the equity in the building,” he said.
In other business:
• The committee agreed that a change to its policy on dogs, cats and other pets should be considered by the Joint School Committee – following a request from a resident. Currently no one can walk their pets on district schools’ properties without authorization from the principal or superintendent.
• The committee authorized Isernio to purchase a new NutriKids computer program to store and process Free and Reduced Lunch Forms.
By Laura Fedak Pedulli