You might remember that State Auditor Suzanne Bump found that the state was responsible for funding (or reimbursing funding) for transportation for students who are homeless who are being bused to their original districts.
The problem is that reimbursement is not for a known amount at budget time, and thus it cannot be allocated by the municipality at the time. If reimbursement comes to the city after budget time (as it will), the city cannot then turn around and allocate the funds to the school system. So the funds, which are supposed to reimburse the school system for a school expense, instead end up in the city's general fund.
Enter the DESE.
At their last meeting, the Board of Ed approved sending out for comment draft regulation changes would set up a system whereby the municipality puts this reimbursement in an account, which is specifically for transportation reimbursement. The funds go into the account, which require no further municipal allocation to be expended by the school system.
Comments are due May 13 to Jay Sullivan (in the School Finance and District Support department). They need to hear "YES PLEASE" from us!
Even an email that says, "Please adopt the proposed changes to the regulations," would do it.
Do please send that in! Last year, Worcester spent half a million dollars on providing this transportation.
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