Hear, hear, Virginia! I couldn’t agree more. Paul, thank you for the succinct and accurate facts and overview. (And Andy Wang as always!) The majority of our community in Lincoln strives to do better and be better citizens, neighbors and friends. I’m proud of our town for its commitment to high quality education and its commitment to AIDE work. I would also like to publicly thank the School Committee for their tireless dedication to our schools and this community. It is a massive time commitment and they make a lot of sacrifices on our behalf. You are our elected representatives and we have faith in you all to guide us to our next superintendent. With gratitude and appreciation,Abigail Adams
From: Virginia Goodwin <[email protected]> Date: January 26, 2023 at 9:22:50 AM EST To: Paul Blanchfield <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [LincolnTalk] Lincoln Public School Expenditures Thank you so much for putting this together Paul. I appreciate how clearly you've laid it all out. And thank you to Andy for crunching the numbers independently and arriving at a remarkably accurate number. I appreciate how much effort it takes to do that analysis, time which I personally was not willing to spend. I just want to say that I don't really care exactly how we stack up against neighboring towns. There are myriad ways Lincoln is different from other towns (our much vaunted rural character, for example), and if we're not looking at all the ways Lincoln is different or similar to other towns, then I don't think it's a great use of our time to try to nitpick the school budget comparison. I am extremely happy with the schools. My children are receiving an excellent education. They are more advanced, academically, than I was at the same age, and the teachers and staff have been responsive and supportive of any perceived hiccups in the road. From another angle, I was concerned that we would not be able to fill our open superintendent position, given how many educators are leaving the profession across the country. Instead we have four excellent candidates. I take that as an indication that Lincoln is providing a high quality educational environment, not just for the children (which I observe directly), but also for the staff, which is equally important. Thanks again to all who were willing to take the time to provide accurate, current data for all of us. Best,Virginia On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 8:26 AM Paul Blanchfield <[email protected]> wrote: As I did In November 2022 re LincolnPopulation & Comparative Taxes, I’d like to clarify some informationon Lincoln Talk,specifically as it relates to the Lincoln Public School expenditures. This is a complicatedarea so apologies for the length / detail. Quick summary up-front for thoseless interested in the full detail. Note these are my individual views and donot necessarily reflect those of the Town Finance Committee. Summary - Lincoln CampusK-8 has a FY23 Operating Budget per Enrolled Student of ~$25.4K. - This is 6%higher than comparable districts (Carlisle, Dover, Sherborn) and 11% higher ifyou include Concord and Sudbury - Thelargest drivers of this 11% higher expense vs. peer towns appears to be school sizeand teacher tenure - Enrolledstudents, not resident students, is the appropriate denominator / metric as thatis how we run our schools - Non-allocatedcosts (e.g., pensions & insurance) have generally grown with inflation inthe last 10 years Lincoln Public School Expenditures The SchoolCommittee and Administration regularly report on School Expenditures as part ofthe annual budget process, including at Annual Town Meeting. For FY23, theOperating Budget for Lincoln Campus was $14.2M, 89% of which is covered byLincoln Town Appropriations, and this funds the education of ~558 enrolledstudents, which equates to ~$25.4K per student. Hanscom Campus had an OperatingBudget of $18.0M, 95% of which is covered by the Department of DefenseContract, and this funds the education of an estimated 541 students, whichequates to $33.3K per student. Combining Lincoln and Hanscom Campus, Lincolnhas a FY23 Operating Budget of $32.2M and 1,099 enrolled students for ~$29.3kper student. ComparativeExpenditures While municipal financial comparisons can be imprecise,there is some comparison data out there. Carlisle School Committee provides a district comparison on an annual basis that provides some useful comparisons of liketowns. For FY20 (the most recent comparison they provide), the report shows theaverage per pupil cost for K-6/8 across Carlisle, Concord, Dover, Sherborn, andSudbury is $18.7K. Lincoln is reported to be $23.9K forFY20 (but this includes both Lincoln Campus and Hanscom or 1K+ students). If weadjust for the relative expenditures of Hanscom and Lincoln Campus’ in FY23noted above (FY20 was not that different a split), it suggests that Lincolnspends ~11% more per student than those towns noted above. However, if youfocus on like-sized districts (e.g., Carlisle, Dover, Sherborn) with less than650 students, Lincoln spends 6% more per student than those like-sizeddistricts as of FY20. This stands in stark contrast to the 2:1 ratio putout on Lincoln Talk. ComparativeDrivers If we want to understand what maydrive the ~11% increased expense per student, benchmarks become even moreconfounding and are more directional than exact. While the below is notexhaustive, it appears that the two largest drivers of our 11% outsizedspend per student are district size and teacher tenure. Indeed, LincolnCampus class size is not materially different than like-sized districts andLincoln Campus teacher salaries are actually lower-per-band than comparableschools. School Size: As noted, Lincoln Campus expenditures perstudent are: - Peer Towns: ~11% higher than the average of Carlisle (K-8),Concord (K-8), Dover (K-6), Sherborn (K-6), and Sudbury (K-8); - ComparablySized Districts: ~6%higher than the average of Carlisle, Dover, and Sherborn; - LargerSized Districts: 21%higher than the average of Concord (~2,700 students) and Sudbury (~2,700students). Clearly there are scale advantages tohaving a larger district and it appears that the size of our Lincoln Schooldistrict could explain ~5% of the 11% difference in spend per student. This isdirectional and I do not mean to assign such exact numbers, but it is how themath works out. I would also note that the DESE School Profiles Site provides comparisons and the differences are comparable tothe above (e.g., 2021 data suggests we’re 7% higher than like-sized districtsof Carlisle, Dover, and Sherborn). Teacher Tenure: In engaging with School Administrators, I’ve learnedthat as of FY23, the Lincoln Campus has ~50% of Staff at the Top Step (#17 of arange of 1-17) and ~45% of Staff in the Top 3 Grades (of 5 Grades). Steps arecorrelated with tenure while Grades are correlated with Educational Experience.While I don’t have great benchmarks and would defer to the School Committee andAdministration, having a more tenured teaching staff will drive increased costsversus a staff that is more evenly distributed across steps. That said, while Iam not an expert, I would note the available researchsuggests that more experienced teachers are correlated with better studentachievement. Teacher Salary: Lincoln is currently in the midst of contractnegotiations with LPS Teachers and the School Committee and Administration haspublicly shared that our teachers are compensated below peer towns forcomparable steps. Indeed, Lincoln currently ranks 5th, 6th,or 7th across 7 districts (Bedford, Belmont, Carlisle, Concord, Lincoln-Sudbury,and Sudbury) for 5 of 6 steps, including 6th in the Top Step. Thus,while our staff have high Steps / Grades, it appears we’re paying teachers lessper Step / Grade than comparable towns. Classroom Size: Our classroom size in FY23 is 17-18, roughlycomparable to Carlisle (17) and Sherborn (19). This also suggests that withinthe cohort of smaller neighboring districts, this is not a driving factor in explainingcost differences. I would also note that given our small size, increasing classsize happens in relatively large steps and is not incremental. For example, ifyou look at the largest grade cohort at LPS in FY23, removing one section wouldincrease class size from 18.3 to 24.3, which is above School Committee Policy. OtherConsiderations StudentDenominator: The SchoolCommittee, Administration, and Finance Committee all assess our spending basedon enrolled students, without breaking this down across METCO-enrolledstudents, Lincoln resident students, or children of LPS staff. This is for thevery simple reason that we oversee a school that serves all of these students.If the town would like to revisit our participation in the METCO program forwhich we were a founding member, have participated in since 1966, and provides opportunitiesfor all of students to experience the advantages of learning and working in aracially and ethnically diverse setting, then the Town can certainly take that up.Similarly, the Town could reassess our policy of enrolling children of LPS staffwhich is a valuable staff recruitment tool. Non-AllocatedCosts: The Town doeshave expenses related to the operations of the school that are not included inthe above numbers for various accounting purposes. Example: we don’t allocatesnow removal to the various departments in Town but rather hold thesecentrally. The same is true for some Pensions & Insurance, which wereestimated to be ~$8.4M in FY2023, the bulk of which is made up of the MiddlesexRetirement Assessment (33%) and Health Insurance (54%) for Town Staff,including those working on the Lincoln Campus. I cannot easily compare thesecosts to other towns but would note that since 2011, these costs have increasedby ~2.9% per annum, which is only slightly higher than inflation over that period. Looking Forward I feel privileged to have excellentTown Staff, School Administrators and Staff, and Town Volunteers who regularlycontribute their time and expertise to ensure we have a well-run and fiscallyresponsible school, and I am grateful for all of their efforts. I wouldencourage residents to tap into their expertise and learnings, and to run forone of the 19 elected seats, including 2 Lincoln School Committee and 2 LSRHSCommittee seats, that will be on the March ballot. Note these are my individual viewsand do not necessarily reflect those of the Town Finance Committee. Paul Blanchfield Sandy Pond Road -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
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