Rep. Peisch at MASBO (on Foundation Budget)

Peisch: recommendations to Legislature about calculation of foundation budget, plus effective use of resources
"really like to thank Dave Verdolino for his participation"
"have found it very helpful to have Dave on the commission"
"he understands the foundation budget and what it is"
eye-opening to see how many people involved in school districts have limited understanding of foundation budget
held series of hearings between first and second meetings
people did focus on two areas: cost of benefits and cost of special education
"people who used it as an opportunity to talk about many other things"
speaks of presentation by superintendent of Revere public schools
improved performance with not much money
At last meeting, took vote, pending advisory commission input
raise health care number to average GIC amount for a municipal member of GIC
on annual basis, benefits have their own inflation adjustor
"relatively easy recommendation" given all the reports of the past years
raise current assumed enrollment from 3.75 to 4% assumption for special ed for most districts
(to 5% for voke)
assumed out of district tuition by the difference of  current to where circuit breaker kicks in
required by legislation to end of June
"have gotten to make very very positive
"Many of us were concerned that if go on too long, and we come up with a long laundry list, we may have difficulty getting them implimentated"
should perhaps note here that this was Peisch's position, in contrast to Chang-Diaz's, which was to be sure that things weren't left out
Baehr's presentation on low spending, high performance
will also look at what other areas commission wants to look at: Chang-Diaz filing for extension
decentralized decision-making
low income, ELL
"I think those are going to be difficult things to reach consensus on"
important to have discussions before we finish our work
Q: any discussion of assumption of 1% out-of-district?
Peisch: somewhat accurate, Commission has found
Q: section 260 of retiree health
Peisch: including retiree health in the calculation is part of the recommendation on health insurance
"not accounted for at all in the foundation budget"
Q: anyone looking at moving the October 1 date out?
Peisch: has not been discussed yet, did come up in hearings
"the further we move that October 1 date forward" longer to calculating foundation budget number
pothole account, possibly?
Q: how will changes impact circuit breaker?
Peisch: changes are conceptual, changes would have to be in Legislation