Saugus selectman continues fight to fix voke school tuition formula

SAUGUS – Selectman Michael Kelleher has received a personal invitation to the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School’s public hearing on its budget next week and was even offered a ride.Kelleher has been urging town officials as well as other communities tied to the school to reject the vocational school’s budget since it is based on a tuition formula he believes is woefully outdated and absolutely inequitable.Kelleher has essentially announced his re-election with the fight because he said last week he would try to remain in office until the issue of the vocational school tuition is resolved.”And it’s not going to be resolved by November,” he added.At issue is a 16-year-old tuition formula that has not changed over the years despite the fact that economic times have. As a result of the formula that was designed to give poorer communities a break, Saugus pays more in tuition than two-thirds of the schools sending students to the Wakefield School.And while the town already pays just over $2 million to send 145 students, earlier this year the board learned the tuition was going up an additional $240,000 to accommodate 16 more students.Kelleher has not committed to attending the meeting, but in a letter thanked Superintendent Patricia Cronin for the invitation. He also asked her for a list of information including a copy of the tentative budget, the dollar and percent increase of the budget over last year, the number of students attending the school by community for 2009, 2008 and 2007 and the number of Saugus kids who applied versus the number accepted for those years as well.Kelleher asked for meeting minutes as well for the last three years and a description of the process of how students are accepted or denied admission to the school.He said he has fielded complaints regarding students who haven’t been accepted to the school and, considering the tuition the town pays, he said that is unacceptable.While Kelleher said he is preparing to lead the tuition fight without the state delegation because he feels they are not in a position to help, at least one representative said that’s not true.Rep. Mark Falzone said he didn’t disagree with Kelleher’s argument and he added changing the tuition formula is a fight he’s been at for several years.”But the deck is stacked against us,” he said.He said he believes the ultimate solution will require a pot of money so the state can pick up some of the financial ground some communities will lose under what he hopes would be a new, more equitable formula.Should Kelleher agree to go to the vocational school’s hearing on the budget next week, he does have a standing offer for a ride. In her note to him inviting him to the meeting, Cronin said Selectman Peter Rossetti, who also serves on the vocational school board, would be happy to give Kelleher a ride.No word yet on if the pair will be carpooling.