School Study Group Sees Little Progress

Task Force Charged with Fiscal Probe of Up-Island Regional School District Hits One Roadblock After Another

By IAN FEIN

A study group charged with evaluating the finances of the Up-Island Regional School District hit yet another snag this week, as the deadline for consultant proposals came and went without a single response.

The financial analysis was supposed to be ready for annual town meetings in April - but that timeline now appears well out of reach.

"It's certainly in doubt," said West Tisbury resident Dick Mezger, co-chairman of the task force that authored the request for proposals (RFP). "Right now we're operating in a bit of stunned disappointment. I guess we'll just regroup and try to figure out where to go next."

The study arose out of a long-running debate about the fairness of the cost-sharing formula in the small up-Island district, which includes West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah. Arguing that West Tisbury carries an unfair share of the financial burden, the town finance committee authored an article at last year's annual town meeting asking residents to withdraw from the district.

Voters opted for the task force study instead - hoping to secure an independent financial analysis that might shed some light on the situation.

Nine months later, no useful information is anywhere in sight.

The task force - made up of three appointed members from each up-Island town - will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss its next course of action.

"I guess the best thing for us to do is come up with some alternatives to pursue - whether it's reworking the RFP or reposting in hopes that others might see it," said task force co-chairman Janet Weidner of Chilmark. "And I guess doing nothing is another alternative. But I don't believe it's really our decision; we have to go back to the selectmen in each town and they have to decide."

West Tisbury selectman John Early - who first proposed the task force study last April and helped shepherd the RFP through a political tug-of-war with Chilmark last month - said the next step is to find out why there were no responses.

"The question is: was the task too daunting, the money not enough, or both?" Mr. Early said.

West Tisbury executive secretary Jennifer Rand said she sent out eight RFPs to interested parties. Task force members plan to contact the consultants who received the RFP, and ask them why they decided not to bite.

"We intend to do whatever we can to find out why we didn't get responses, and see if there's anything we can do to remedy their concerns," Mr. Mezger said.

If it is a matter of money, finding additional funds for the study will likely be a struggle.

West Tisbury voters approved funding for the consultant at a special town meeting last October, but only after the article was amended on the floor by Mr. Early to limit the town's contribution to $12,000. Chilmark selectmen agreed to pay the consultant $10,000, and cash-strapped Aquinnah pitched in another $3,000 - putting the total cost of the study at no more than $25,000.

Mr. Early said this week that if the consultants indicated they needed more money, he would lead an effort to raise additional funds.

"This town expressed an interest to find this information, and I think we have an obligation to keep trying," Mr. Early said. "I'm willing to do whatever's responsive to the needs of the town - short of funding it myself."

Mrs. Weidner thinks the solution might be to scale back the scope of the study.

"At this point I don't think it would be possible to get everything done that we wanted to by April," she said. "But there are six tasks in the RFP, and it's possible that we could ask someone to look at three."

Any changes to the RFP - including funding and scope - needs approval from selectmen in each up-Island town, and that would further delay any potential study.

Mr. Mezger said this week that the demanding timeline for the study may have been what kept consultants away.

"By trying to get the information back in time for annual town meeting, we may have set a schedule that frightened them away," he said. "Obviously we were trying our darnedest to adhere to the schedule, even though our process started two months late and we took another month hit while we waited for selectmen to figure out exactly what they wanted in the RFP. Maybe we got ourselves into a situation where we just couldn't make the time."

West Tisbury finance committee members expressed little surprise that the up-Island district study is still off-track.

"We're right where we thought we would be," said chairman Sharon Estrella.

Two weeks ago up-Island district officials presented their budget for the next fiscal year to West Tisbury selectmen and finance committee members.

While total assessments are down a quarter of a per cent from this year's budget, West Tisbury's share will actually go up almost four per cent, to more than $5 million.

The finance committee meets next Tuesday, and more than one member said they will certainly discuss authoring another article to have the town withdraw from the district. The deadline for submitting annual town meeting articles in West Tisbury is Feb. 15.