FY25 A.I. Effective Use of Regional School District Funds*
This session will provide an overview of uses of some of the more common regional school district funding sources. Topics will include the use of Excess and Deficiency (E & D) in regional school district budgets, including how and when E & D may be used and what districts are required to do if E and D is over 5%, and the use of other sources of funds (within and outside the general fund budget), including stabilization, transportation reimbursement, and school choice.
Michelle Griffin
Regional Governance Coordinator
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Michelle is in her 18th year at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and serves as the Regional Governance Coordinator in the Office of Regional Governance in the Center for School Finance and District Support. Prior to returning to the Office of Regional Governance in 2019, Michelle held several roles at the Department, including monitoring public school districts, collaboratives, and approved special education schools and investigating complaints filed concerning districts. As the Regional Governance Coordinator, she focuses on issues related to regional school districts, including amendments to regional agreements, fiscal oversight, and specific grants for regionalization and regional school districts.
Stephen Hemman
Consultant
Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools
Stephen Hemman was the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS) from 2008 to 2015. He has spent his career in educations as a teacher, vice-principal, Business Administrator, Assistant Superintendent and from 2000 to 2008 Superintendent of the Narragansett Regional School District. He holds Bachelor’s Degree from Florida Southern College, Masters in Education from Boston University, MBA for the University of Vermont, and Educational Doctoral Degree from the University of Mass at Lowell. He has held licenses as a school superintendent, business administrator, and middle school principal. He has taught graduate courses as an adjunct professor with Fitchburg State University and Boston University. He is currently the lead consultant for the MARS Consulting Group
Christine Lynch
Management Consultant, Office of Regional Governance
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Chris started in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over 45 years ago in the School Building Assistance Program working on construction related issues as well as regional organizational issues. Chris worked in the School Finance area during the early years of the educational reform law in 1993 on the new Chapter 70 formula and the revised financial chart of accounts. From 1999 to 2004 she served as the director of the School Building Assistance Program before becoming Director of Regional Governance. Chris retired in 2016 but has continued to work in the Office of Regional Governance as a consultant, focusing primarily on issues relating to the formation and expansion of regional school districts, the updating of existing regional agreements and issues relating to regional budgeting and finance.