By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD – The projected Fiscal 2025 tuition for Wakefield students in the SEEM Collaborative in Stoneham, is $177, 440, for four students. That is $8,240 (4.87%) higher than the Fiscal 2024 tuition of $169,200. Services would have cost $317,651 in comparable private programs, yielding a “cost avoidance” of $148,451. Citing the $5,500 annual dues, at the School Committee meeting Tuesday, February 27 Superintendent Doug Lyons said, “We have gained tremendously from being part of the group.”
Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro called membership “a huge benefit to the district.”
Member Peter Davis called the $5,500 “small; change” compared to the benefits.
SEEM Collaborative provides quality-driven, affordable educational programs and services to students with moderate to severe disabilities.
Other member communities include Lynnfield, Melrose, North Andover, North Reading, Reading, Saugus, Stoneham, Wilmington, Winchester and Woburn. Programs are offered at schools in Lynnfield, Melrose, Stoneham, Wakefield (at The Yeuell School) and Wilmington. The Superintendents from the member communities are a Board of Directors and de facto School Committee for SEEM.
The overall SEEM Fiscal 2024 budget for all member communities is calculated at $3,422,700 for 59 students with 11 aides. If they were enrolled in comparable private programs the cost would be $5,688,079, yielding a cost avoidance of $2,265,379.
“SEEM uses public funds to educate students who can’t be educated in their home district because the support they need isn’t offered,” Lyons explained. “The benefit of being a member is, if you have a student who needs those services, you get it at a discount.”
There are also 48 non-member communities, including Lynn. The total projected Fiscal 2025 Budget is $36,801,722, up $899,949 (2.51%) from $35,901,773 in Fiscal 2024. Tuition will comprise 62.76% of SEEM’s revenue. Member community tuitions will total $4,409,280 (12%), while non-member community tuitions are $18,687,200 (51%). “In accordance with the SEEM mission, the budget reflects the goals to exercise fiscal responsibility to minimize expenses while maximizing services and exist as a viable option to school districts by attracting and retaining qualified staff while offering competitive salary and benefits,” reads their Fiscal 2025 Budget Highlights report.
Both the Fiscal 2024 and 2025 budget are balanced, with revenue equaling expenses, dovetailing with the goal to “use methodology to determine tuition and fee for service rates based on determining projected expenses and projected enrollment and then establishing tuition and fees at a level that will generate enough revenue to cover projected expenses.”
In Fiscal 2023 $32,958,931 in revenue exceeded $32,731,346 in expenses.
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On Feb. 12, the Student Services Subcommittee met to discuss changing school start times. Changing the morning start time for the High School from 7:20 to 8, Galvin Middle School from 7:50 to 8:20 and the elementary schools from 8:40 to 9:10 is being considered, but the members feel feedback is needed from parents and students.
“We figured we’d explore it and want to see if families are interested,” Subcommittee chairman Eileen Colleran said.
A Late Start Working Group may also be established.
Of course starting school later means the day ends later in the afternoon, presumably at 2:40 at the High School, 2:50 at Galvin and 3:20 at the elementary schools, which could affect after school jobs and activities. Colleran doesn’t think it will affect after school sports too much since many nearby communities, including Melrose and Saugus, have already pushed back their start times.
The idea of flipping the start times of the elementary and High Schools has been rejected. “7:20 is too early for elementary school,” Colleran said.
School Committee member Kevin Fontanella works as a history teacher at Saugus High School, which now starts at 7:50 instead of 7:25. He said that his students are benefitting.
“There’s all kinds of research about how student brains work,” Colleran added, alluding to a June 2023 presentation by student Alexis Manzi about the benefits of starting later, centered around them being more alert in school and driving to school, based on information from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A survey Manzi conducted indicated 93% of High School students prefer a later start time, with 53% okay with starting at 8.
Colleran wants people, especially students, to know nothing is happening anytime soon and it is unlikely the schedules for the 2024-25 school year will be changed. “We’re in the beginning stages of research,” she said.
