Belmont Taxpayers Fund 'Checks Off' $57.5K Request to Schools

Ever find a twenty-dollar bill in that winter coat you put away months ago? The unexpected Benjamin Franklin in a holiday card? Coins at the bottom of the sofa's cushions?

The Belmont School Committee knows the feeling after a vote Monday, March 25, by the town's Education Scholarship Committee approving the transfer of $57,500 – by far the most ever requested – from an obscure account which in the past 15 years raised approximately $105,000 from altruistic residents who "checked off" a box on their real estate tax bill to donate to the education fund.

And this one-time "found" money will allow Belmont elementary schools to implement a new math program that many feared early in the current budget process would be delayed for yet another year.

Rediscovering the funding source began in early winter when School Committee member Anne Lougee began wondering about the account which for many years she and her husband, Roger Colton, donated.

"We always checked off the donation box but I'm thinking how much has been raised and where was it going," said Lougee as she and her fellow members were struggling with yet another gap in funding at the start of the budget process. 

It turned out that there was a good bit of change in the account. According to , the account has been growing throughout the decade-and-a-half since it was established in the mid-1990s. With several thousand of dollars entering its coffers annually and very little going out, the fund has grown into the six figures. 

The account, which is overseen by the same committee that manages and distributes the town scholarships to graduating seniors from Belmont High School annually, was used over the past 15 years by school administrators "who would ask for a couple of thousand of dollars" to plug the myriad of budgetary leaks and sudden needs, said Carman.

"The department is within its jurisdiction to make a request for the money," said Carman.

With the schools facing yet another budget cycle starting in the red in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Lougee and the School Department viewed the pot of money as a opportunity to fill some of this year's financial holes. 

"It just struck us as a great way for an education fund to help educate our students," said Lougee. 

One-time donation

Since any infusion of funds from the education fund into the school department's account would be considered one-time funding, the department saw the opportunity to update a glaring need in the elementary grades.

The school department determined last year its existing elementary math program, "Everyday Mathematics," did not adequately cover the standards in the new curriculum framework required by the state.

In January, the school department selected a new program, enVisionMATH Common Core 2012 from Pearson Education, with a price tag of approximately $200,000. 

In his initial letter to Carman in January, School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston asked if it was feasible to use the entire amount in the fund for a down payment to the publisher of the new program.

But in a reply to the School Department, Carman said any attempt to empty the account would effectively kill the account since the public would view negatively the attempted draw down. 

"Who would check off the account if that account is emptied every decade?" said Carman. 

In addition, Carman said he would advise the committee – which has the final say on the funds distributions– to reject any amount they felt would cripple the account as residents would be reluctant to fund the account. 

Countering the initial request, Carman said a more realistic approach would be receiving two payments of approximately $35,000 over two fiscal years. 

Kingston said he would accept a one-time draw down of $57,500 which the school department would combine with payments scheduled to support material and training for the current math system – coming up with nearly half of the cost of the $200,000 price tag – to purchase the new program so it will be ready to be in classrooms this September.

It is still undetermined where the final $100,000 to purchase the new math program will come from. 

But it won't come from the education fund. Carmen said Kingston told him that the $57,500 "is a one-time request."