Hard Math For Monomoy District: Education Costs Scrutinized

Over the past 15 years, Harwich’s per-student cost has increased by 24 percent; in the same period, Chatham’s per-student cost has risen by 15.6 percent. In 2024, the average single-family home tax bill in Harwich contributed $2,195 toward educational expenses, while in Chatham property owners paid an average of $1,115 in taxes to cover education costs.

Those figures were presented to the Harwich Select Board Dec. 22 by the ad hoc committee that was charged with demonstrating the need to change the funding formula in the Monomoy Regional School District  agreement between Harwich and Chatham. The committee included finance committee member Scott Norum, Finance Director Jennifer Mince, Acting Town Administrator Tony Schaivi and Select Board member Mark Kelleher.

Over the past several years the select board has expressed concerns that the town may not be able to meet its financial obligation to the regional school district given its tax levy limit, and an override might be necessary to continue funding educational expenses.

Norum said 40.2 percent of the Harwich annual budget in 2024 was directed to total educational expenses, while in Chatham 19.8 percent of the annual budget went to education. 

According to Norum, most of the savings from a merger of the Chatham and Harwich school districts came from the elimination of overhead or fixed costs. Because the smaller partner in a merger — in this case Chatham — tends to have higher per-student fixed costs, it saves more money, he said.

Savings can come from several areas, he said, including facilities costs, especially when the number of buildings is reduced; administration, which does not vary much with enrollment; technological infrastructure; and district-wide services such as procurement, legal expenses and accounting.

Under the present district agreement formula, contributions are based on student population. Harwich is presently paying approximately 77 percent of district costs. 

When the town budget requires more tax revenue than the levy limit allows, a Proposition 2½  override is required. Kelleher said Harwich is at 99.76 percent of its levy limit, just $148,000 below the spending cap. The projection for next year is that town spending will be just $50,000 below the levy limit.

An override would require town meeting approval and a majority vote in a town-wide election. In 2025, only 33 of 63 override requests across the state were approved, Kelleher said. If an override fails, budgets have to be revised to fit within the levy limit. Adjustments to town and school budgets could include program and service reductions, staff layoffs, school curriculum impacts, increased fees and building maintenance delays.

 Norum said he went into the exercise thinking the current formula was the simplest and most equitable. He looked at the costs per student in the five single-town school districts on the Cape over a 15-year period. Bourne’s increase was 40.6 percent; Mashpee was 34 percent; Falmouth was 33.9 percent; Barnstable was 17.7 percent; and Sandwich was minus 0.1 percent.

The average for the five single town districts was 23.3 percent, very close to Harwich’s 15-year increase of 24 percent. Norum said Harwich and Chatham percentages are based on assessments, while the other five school districts percentage increases are based on total expenditures, including outside funding.   

 “Since 2012, Chatham has saved about $3 million per year compared to what it would have spent if its per-student costs had grown at the same rate as the five independent Cape school systems, a total of $33 million from 2012 to 2023,” he said. 

 Norum said in a few regional school districts in the commonwealth, and in districts in other states, municipal wealth and other economic conditions such as the level of income, property values and municipal budget flexibilities have been used in developing a formula for regional school district funding. But no wealth or economic conditions were considered in the MRSD assessment formula, he said.

 Regarding wealth factors, the average income level in Chatham is 63 percent higher than in Harwich, Norum said. Property values per capita are two-and-a-half times greater in Chatham; the residential tax rate in Chatham is 59 percent of the Harwich tax rate; the average single-family home value is 73 percent higher in Chatham; Chatham has 27 times the excess tax levy capacity of Harwich; and the amount of free cash generated in Chatham is nearly double Harwich’s.

 Norum said the next step should be to look at those regional school districts which have included wealth factors and economic conditions in the assessment formula.

 MRSD Superintendent Scott Carpenter said that it is important for Harwich officials to start conversations with their counterparts in Chatham.

Carpenter also cautioned against cutting school budgets and staffing should Harwich find itself exceeding the tax levy cap. He said MRSD lives in the “wild-west” of school choice and such cuts could create uncertainty among parents who might look to other school districts for stability.    

 “We’ve seen a huge change in our stability in the 13 years I’ve been here,” Carpenter said. “We’ve seen more of the children in Chatham and Harwich staying in our school system and retaining a half million dollars in our school budget.”

 Select board member Peter Piekarski said the data was a “good road map.” Piekarski agreed with Carpenter that budget instability could potentially damage the school district, which, he said, has done remarkably well.  

The financial issues would not just be a one-year problem, said select board member Jeffrey Handler. Facing a tax levy cap could be a problem for Harwich year after year. Taking care of students is important, and addressing the formula assessment needs to be a priority, he said.  

 “Nothing is going to change without conversation,” Handler said. “I do view Chatham as our partners and I know they view us as their partners. At the end of the day, it’s about pumping out quality kids. We all win.”

 Piekarski said he did not expect that the conversations would lead to a resolution in time for changes to the regional agreement to go before voters in the May town meeting.