Weekly Update
*iReady testing continuing, so check your building schedule*
Monday, January 27-Regular School Day
GEF meeting at 5:30pm
Tuesday, January 28-Regular School Day
Wednesday, January 29-Regular School Day
Thursday, January 30-Regular School Day, with MSBA site visits at CES and LVL
PD Committee meeting at 4:30pm
Friday, January 31-Wear jeans and your Gator Gear!
MSBA Site Visits This Week
This week, the Massachusetts School Building Authority will conduct site visits at all sites at Gateway. This is part of their regular inspection to assess all school buildings across the state. The MSBA does this to collect data on the facilities across the Commonwealth to determine how best to offer supports. For example, in 2027, the district will be eligible to apply for financial support for the MSBA to contribute half of the cost for a roof replacement at the high school...which will likely be over a million dollars. So, aside from the fact that these site visits are required, it's in our best interest to support this process for their work.
The MSBA will be conducting In-Person site visit:
Thurs. Jan. 30: Chester ES (8am)
Thurs. Jan. 30: Littleville ES (12:30pm)
Mon. Feb. 3: Gateway Reg. MS/HS (8am)
You can read more about it here if you are curious :)
JANUARY Instructional Vision Challenge! (Yes, there are still fabulous prizes!)
We will continue into January with inviting staff to share how YOU are implementing a part of our instructional vision.
This month's focus are the third two bullets in the instructional vision are:
- Gateway students will work together to support each other as members of the learning community.
- Gateway staff will push every student to grow as a learner and as a community member.
Staff are invited to fill out a brief (2-3 sentences!) summary of how you are implementing this part of our vision. It can be specific or general, and it should clearly describe how your actions are moving this part of our instructional vision forward.
Here is the link to share!
https://padlet.com/ksmidy1/january-instructional-vision-challenge-qhfhko8arphwpo3j
To add to the board, click the plus sign in the bottom right corner and write in your submission. Finally, hit Publish and voila! You're done!
Staff who share how they are implementing or supporting implementation of December's focus area of the instructional vision by January 31 will be entered to win a $50 gift card to one of the following locations: Carms, Common Table, Moltenbreys, Amazon, Big Y, Dunkin or at a place of your choice that I can get a gift card with relative ease 😂
District Data for your review
I am going to try to share some data with you each week that may be of interest to you.
The first glimpse at the Governor's Budget was released last week. Here are some numbers of interest statewide. This analysis was done by Julie Kelley of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools.
You can locate the full budget release here.
Minimum aid is $75 per pupil, and is included in the Chapter 70 line item.
Universal Free Lunch is funded at $170,000,000, which is not full year funding.
Rural aid is funded at $16,000,000. Note that the language is the same language the Governor has used in her prior two state budgets, and is different from the language used in House and Senate budgets.
Regional Transportation funding has been split between its regular line item and a new line item (see below).
Universal School Lunch Program (1596-2422)
Governor: $170,000,000
FY25 final: $170,000,000
Regional Transportation (7035-0006)
Claim projection: [unknown at this time]
Governor: $72,119,862
FY25: $99,456,813 (84%)
FY24: $97,077,605 (87%)
FY23: $82,178,615 (79%)
FY22: $82,178,615 (90%)
FY21: $82,178,615 (96%)
School Transportation Reimbursement (1596-2451)
Governor: $50,000,000
Language:
For reimbursements to regional school districts for the transportation of pupils and to cities, towns, regional vocational or county agricultural school districts, independent vocational schools and collaboratives for certain expenditures for transportation of nonresident pupils to approved vocational-technical programs of any regional or county agricultural school district, city, town, independent school or collaborative under section 8A of chapter 74 of the General Laws; provided, that if the amount appropriated in this item is insufficient to fully fund said section 8A of said chapter 74, initial reimbursements made by the department of elementary and secondary education may be prorated by the department to all eligible cities, towns, regional vocational or county agricultural school districts, independent vocational schools and collaboratives; provided further, that funds from this item for reimbursements to regional school districts for the transportation of pupils shall be in addition to funds appropriated in item 7035-0006; and provided further, that the commissioner of elementary and secondary education may transfer funds from this item to said item 7035-000
Circuit Breaker (7061-0012)
Claim Projection: [unknown at this time]
Governor: $531,991,844
FY25: $493,177,484
FY24: $504,573,601
FY23: $441,031,605
FY22: $373,333,860
FY21: $345,154,803
Rural Aid (7061-9813)
Governor: $16,000,000
FY25: 16,000,000
FY24: $15,000,000
FY23: $5,500,000
FY22: $4,000,000
FY21: $3,000,000
Governor's language: For rural school assistance grants to cities, towns, regional school districts, county agricultural schools, independent vocational schools, charter schools or collaboratives to increase regional collaboration, consolidation or other strategies to improve the long-term operational efficiency and effectiveness of public schools; provided, that in awarding such grants, priority shall be given to proposals that support schools and districts that have experienced, or are experiencing, significant enrollment losses that jeopardize their long-term fiscal health and ability to offer high quality educational programming
Homeless Transportation (7035-0008)
Claim Projection: [unknown at this time]
Governor: $ 28,671,815
FY25: $28,671,815 (70.3%)
FY24: $28,671,815 (74.4%)
FY23: 22,981,479
FY22: $14,449,605
FY21: $13,449,605
Non-Resident Voke Transportation (7035-0007)
Claim Projection: [unknown at this time]
Governor: $0 - this line item has been moved to new line item 1596-2451, see above
FY25: $1,000,000 (17.32%)
FY24: $1,000,000 (18.3%)
FY23: $250,000
FY22: $250,000
FY21: $250,000
Chapter 70 Aid (7061-0008)
Governor: (Minimum Per Pupil $75 included): $7,097,168,436
FY25: $6,864,918,685
FY24: $6,584,758,265
FY23: $5,988,520,366
FY22: $5,503,268,224
FY21: $5,283,651,632
Minimum Per Pupil Aid (1596-0007 this is a line item number change)
Governor: $0 ($75 is included in Chapter 70 line item)
FY25: $0 (included in Chapter 70 line item)
FY24:$7,864,821
FY23: $9,689,521
FY22: $0
FY21: $0
Charter School (7061-9010)
Claim Projection: [unknown at this time]
Governor: $179,089,258
FY25: $198,988,065
FY24: $232,682,538 (100%)
FY23: $244,804,746
FY22: $154,604,742
FY21: $117,357,887
