Saugus pols ‘outraged’ over lack of funding

SAUGUS – Superintendent Richard Langlois said he was “ballistic” while Town Manager Andrew Bisignani used the word “outraged” over the town’s exclusion from the list of communities that will receive federal education stimulus funding.But Jonathan Palumbo, spokesman for the Executive Office of Education, said their assessments are not exactly fair.Gov. Deval Patrick announced last week that 166 communities would receive $168 million in federal education recovery funds, but Saugus was not on the list. The official report is that the formula is based solely on the difference between a community’s Chapter 70 local aid and its foundation budget.Palumbo said the reason Saugus is not on the list is because it is already receiving substantial state support through Chapter 70 money.”They’re just not receiving this funding,” he said.Palumbo also added that Patrick announced Friday that the town was receiving $379,000 in Special Education funding and another announcement would be forthcoming on Title 1 grants.Bisignani, however, said the funding still doesn’t make sense.”That formula is 20 years old,” he said. “It came in when education reform was introduced (in 1993.)”Bisignani said it seems to him that common sense would dictate that things have changed for communities since then.Langlois also took issue with what he believes is a lack of forethought behind the funding.”No one has explained with any depth how the money was given out,” he said. “Where is the accountability in dollars? It’s a tragedy for us given the number of kids we have needing services.”Palumbo said the money was distributed to make up for the shortfall that will be caused if Chapter 70 money is level funded in 2010, as is proposed.Langlois said it bothers him that wealthier communities such as Wellesley, Hingham and Georgetown are destined to receive funding while some poorer communities, many worse off than Saugus, are not.”Newburyport is excluded,” he said. “They’re closing schools and falling apart.”Palumbo pointed out that Boston was also left off the list because it depended on how much a district received in Chapter 70 funding.Bisignani said it isn’t only the wealthier districts that he feels are unfairly benefitting.”Not to disparage our neighbors but it irks me that Revere got $5.2 million and Saugus got nothing,” he said. “I fail to see the fairness in the distribution or in the thought.”Given the fact the district is facing cutbacks and possible layoffs Langlois said he is simply at a loss as to how the district could have been ignored.”It’s a disappointment,” he said. “I think something should come our way. Our needs are greater or at least equal to other communities because of our changing demographics.”While it was once a rarity to have a student in the system who could not speak English, those days are waning. There are now at least nine languages – Spanish, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Urdu, Hindi, Somalian, Cambodian, Chinese and Creole – spoken in the district and no English as a Second Language services to speak of. The number of homeless students requiring busing to and from the district has also soared.Langlois said because there has been such fallout he is hoping perhaps Patrick will revisit his plan, which is contingent on the legislative approval.Bisignani said he doesn’t know how the legislature will vote on Patrick’s budget, but he has spoken with the state delegation over the stimulus funding.”The state delegation was caught unprepared,” he said. “I spoke with them and they said they will work diligently to correct this egregious wrong.”