January 8, 2004

STATE DELEGATION ANNOUNCE POTHOLE FUNDS
Senator Resor and Representatives Eldridge and Atkins secure Emergency Education Money for local School Districts

State Senator Pam Resor and State Representatives Jamie Eldridge and Cory Atkins are pleased to announce that the Town of Acton and the Minuteman Regional High School have both been awarded grants of $200,000 each from the Legislature’s FY’04 foundation reserve (the so-called “pothole” fund) program.  This program is intended to provide supplemental financial assistance to cities, towns, and regional school districts to address urgent and unanticipated educational needs.  The $200,000 dollar grant is the maximum amount any school district in the Commonwealth can receive. 

The Acton and Minuteman school districts both applied for these funds this past October. The local Legislative delegation lobbied extensively for the emergency funding, due to an unexpectedly high assessment requested of Acton by Minuteman Regional School, and cuts in state aid to municipalities and vocational schools. The Department of Education (DOE) announced the awards on January 8. 

“All school districts in the Commonwealth have suffered from the cutbacks in the state education budget this year,” said Resor.  “ While the amount of relief for Acton and Minuteman are small in relation to the loss of State aid and the growing needs of our schools, we are pleased that this modest amount of aid will be awarded.“

“The receipt of the pothole funds for the Acton and Minuteman School Districts will help reduce the cuts our town’s excellent education system” said Rep. Eldridge.  “This unexpected grant is only the first step in my working to stop further setbacks of Acton’s proud educational system and changes to the state’s chapter 70 formula.”

“I’m happy that the town officials were so timely in notifying the Senator, Representative Eldridge and I so that we could push for this additional funding” said Rep. Atkins.

The Town of Acton was awarded the funds to offset the substantial error made by the Department of Education in the calculation of Acton’s minimum contribution funding to Minuteman Regional High School, as well as to fund public safety early intervention efforts in the Acton schools.

The Minuteman Regional High School was awarded funds to assist with unbudgeted transportation costs and to partially reimburse member towns for the error in calculations.