State school-aid changes, 'hold harmless' rules and foundation-budget math draw sustained attention at Hubbardston joint meeting

Tracy Novak, field director for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, outlined how Massachusetts calculates state school aid — the foundation budget under chapter 70 — and explained changes from the Student Opportunity Act during a joint meeting of the Select Board and Finance Committee in Hubbardston.

Novak walked attendees through the history behind the state’s approach (from the 1647 Old Deluder Satan law to the 1993 McDuffy decision and the resulting foundation budget regime) and described how the Student Opportunity Act (signed in 2019) revises the foundational per‑pupil calculation by increasing dollar increments for low‑income students, English learners and in‑district special education and by separating health‑insurance inflation from the general inflation factor.

Why it matters: the Student Opportunity Act phases in higher per‑pupil allocations over a six‑year schedule and reweights where state aid goes, Novak said. For many small, regional and rural districts — including the Quabbin Regional School District that serves Hubbardston — those changes produce material shifts in the foundation budget even when local enrollment is flat. At the same time, other statutory rules (the state’s formula for the share a municipality is expected to fund, municipal revenue growth factors, and an 82.5% maximum local share cap) complicate how that foundation budget becomes actual town tax…