NORTHAMPTON — State officials said Thursday they will grant Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School relief from a new state law significantly impacting its chargeable tuition.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is granting the waiver because a majority of the school’s population is uniquely composed of out-of-district students, according to a letter addressed to School superintendent Jeffrey Peterson from Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester.
“This magnifies the impact of the new regulation,” Chester said in the letter. “For most vocational schools, nonresident students are a relatively small percentage of the overall enrollment, so the reduction in tuition revenue is manageable. But Smith is clearly an outlier in this regard.”
Peterson estimated Tuesday that without the waiver the new regulation, which reduces what the school charges in non-resident tuition from $17,556 per student to $16,464 per student, would equate to a $400,000 hit in the budget.
“If these regulations do not change for us, I have serious concerns about its financial viability in the future,” Peterson wrote in his budget highlights.
To mitigate the impact, Chester set a school specific cap of $17,000 per out-of-district student. Chester said the waiver is temporary.
“I recognize that these structural changes will not happen quickly, and it is important that we maintain the school’s short-term fiscal viability while seeking a long-term solution,” he said.
Peterson said the waiver will make up for about $200,000 in the school’s budget, which means fewer cuts will be necessary.
“The Hail Mary that I requested came through,” Peterson said. “I was waiting and waiting and waiting and while the timing wasn’t great, it’s all good news in the end.”
But for Nancy Follansbee, Easthampton’s superintendent of schools, the news was less favorable. She said her district paid $860,244 last year to send 49 Easthampton students to Smith Voke.
“That’s a high tuition for a public school district to pay and we struggle with it, as do other districts in the area,” said Follansbee, adding that her administration was looking forward to seeing the full extent of “fiscal relief” the new regulation would have provided. “It makes it harder for us to provide for our families and our students in public schools.”
In the same letter, Chester also informed Peterson the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education denied his application for relief from a second state regulation, which limits exploratory periods — a half-year period during which freshmen experiment with vocational school shops and decide which one they will choose — to vocational schools within the student’s own district. That, Peterson explained, will have a major impact on enrollment and tuition to the tune of $494,000 in lost revenue.
Peterson said he is working with the board of trustees to set a time for a special meeting to hash out budgetary details in this new context.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Peterson said the new regulations before the waiver add up to about $1 million in lost revenue. Peterson was criticized in the meeting for presenting a budget of $7,058,923 without detailing cuts, which he said would be achieved by “attrition and restructuring.” The school’s budget for the current year is approximately $9 million.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.