(1) The following expenditures from local
revenues by a municipal department other than the school department which
result in services to or on behalf of the school district, shall be reported to
the Department on or before September 30th of each
year in accordance with the expenditure categories and cost allocation methods
set forth in guidelines published by the Department. The cost of insurance and
retirement benefits for non-school district employees shall not be included or
reported.
(a)
Administrative
Services. The cost of municipal accounting, auditing, central data
processing, central purchasing, employee benefits administration, and financial
services provided to the school department.
(b)
Educational Media and Library
Services, Exclusive of Capital Outlay. The activities of
librarians and catalogers, and the costs associated with cataloguing books,
pamphlets, periodicals and other materials for use by school district students
where there is an agreement between the school district and the library board
for specific services to be provided to students.
(c)
Health Services.
The salaries of health personnel who provide direct services or instruction to
public school students or school department employees pursuant to an agreement
between the school district and the municipality for the provision of these
services and related costs for supplies, materials and other direct
expenditures in support of services covered by the agreement; the salaries of
public safety officers, on an hourly basis, who provide direct classroom
instruction on alcohol and substance abuse and violence prevention to public
school students pursuant to an agreement between the school district and the
municipality for the provision of these services; the salaries of health
personnel who provide direct services which state law requires be provided to
non-public students or non-public school employees and who make regularly
scheduled visits to non-public schools for this purpose and related costs for
supplies, materials and other direct expenditures in support of these and other
services provided in accordance with M.G.L. c. 71, § 57.
(d)
School Security
Services. Salaries and other expenses of security staff or school
police who are scheduled solely on school grounds where there is an agreement
between the school committee and the municipality for specific services to be
provided.
(e)
Student
Transportation Services. All costs incurred as a result of
programs transporting public school students once daily to and from school, and
the costs incurred in transporting non-public school students once daily to and
from school to the extent required by M.G.L. c. 76, § 1.
(f)
Operation and Maintenance of
School Facilities. The direct costs of salaries, supplies,
materials and contractual expenses for the ordinary and extraordinary
maintenance of school buildings, grounds and equipment. School maintenance
expenditures shall be reported for services performed within a school building
or on school grounds, and shall include other property used by the public
schools only where there is an agreement between the municipality and the
school district concerning the use and maintenance of that property. Overhead
costs for non-school buildings shall not be included or reported.
(g)
Employee
Benefits. The actual costs of pensions paid to school department
retirees or the actual costs of assessments paid to state, county or municipal
retirement systems on account of school department employees or retirees,
including any special assessments for early retirement incentive programs for
school department employees; the direct insurance premiums for active and
retired school district employees, after deducting all employee contributions;
contributions to self-insurance trust funds from the municipality's general
fund; and the indirect costs of administering employee benefit
programs.
(h)
Non-employee Insurance. The direct insurance premiums
for school buildings, grounds, equipment and liability coverage, contributions
to non-employee self-insurance trust funds from the municipality's general
fund, and the indirect costs of administering school facilities and liability
insurance programs.
(i)
Rental/Lease of School Buildings and Non-instructional
Equipment. Expenditures for the lease or rental, at the request of
the school district, of buildings and non-instructional equipment for the
public schools, not including any capital lease which provides for the
municipality's acquisition of the leased building or equipment at the
conclusion of the lease term.
(j)
Interest on Borrowing for School District Purposes.
Actual interest paid in borrowing for Revenue Anticipation Notes to support
current year school district operations, interest on bonds and loans used to
finance the purchase or construction of schools, textbooks, instructional
equipment and technology, non-instructional equipment, and school building
maintenance.
(k)
Other
Recurrent School-related Expenditures. Other items of a recurrent
nature for school purposes such as the salaries of crossing guards and the
costs of public safety inspections.
(l)
Acquisition, Improvement and
Replacement of School Sites, Buildings, Equipment and Student Transportation
Vehicles. Such costs shall be limited to funds expended for school
capital construction and major reconstruction projects, maintenance projects
which exceed the cost limit for extraordinary maintenance, the actual cost of
student transportation vehicles, amortized in accordance with guidelines
published by the Department, and other specific appropriated items, including
school building planning costs and lease/purchases of buildings or
non-instructional equipment, that are intended to acquire a new asset for the
school district.
(m)
Programs with Other Public and Private Schools and Educational
Collaboratives. The tuition or assessment paid for instructional
programs provided by other school districts or private schools to students
resident in the municipality who attend those schools by agreement of the
district school committee or as a result of placement by a state
agency.
(2) Where the
Department's guidelines permit districts to select among two or more
permissible methods for allocating the municipal expenditures set forth in 603
CMR 10.04(1)(a) through (m), one method shall be chosen by the school district
and used consistently from year to year. The allocation method used to report
expenditures by municipal departments other than the school department may be
changed only with the approval of the Commissioner.
(3) When school and municipal officials
cannot agree on the correct reporting, allocation and documentation of
expenditures by municipal agencies for educational purposes, they shall so
notify the Department. The Commissioner shall, upon receipt of such notice,
appoint a designee to conduct an informal hearing to encourage the parties to
reach an agreement and make a final determination on the issues in dispute if
no agreement is reached within a reasonable time period. The Commissioner shall
consult with and seek assistance from the Commissioner of Revenue or his or her
designee in attempting to resolve such disputes.
