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Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Honors Emmaus’ Murphy with Excellence in Leadership Award

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Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Honors Emmaus’ Murphy with Excellence in Leadership Award


Emmaus’ CEO Jeanine Murphy was lately awarded the Massachusetts Nonprofit Community’s 2022 Excellence in Management Award.

Murphy, together with greater than 120 professionals, was nominated earlier this spring for one of many six Excellence awards. She was then named a finalist and offered the award at Nonprofit Community’s annual award celebration on June 22.

“Our mission of hope embraces the philosophy, ‘there however for the grace of God go you or I,’ Murphy mentioned, whereas accepting her award in the course of the digital award ceremony. “This award is the validation of the unbelievable work being completed at Emmaus—altering lives one individual at a time.”

The Excellence Award in Management, acknowledges a senior nonprofit govt who has a unprecedented report of organizational outcomes, exemplifies strategic imaginative and prescient, ardour, integrity, innovation, perseverance and a collaborative spirit. This 12 months, the award honors Murphy’s greater than 20 years of extraordinary management and her strategic imaginative and prescient, ardour, integrity and innovation. Since opening its first shelter in 1987, Emmaus has served greater than 40,000 individuals.

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In recognition of Murphy’s award, Emmaus will obtain $500 from Residents Financial institution.

Murphy is a resident of Newburyport.

“Jeanine’s ardour for, and contributions to, our group and on problems with homelessness are profound,” mentioned Deborah Peckham, president of Emmaus’ Board of Administrators.

Murphy’s colleague and Emmaus Chief Working Officer Leslie Lawrence agreed. “Working aspect by aspect with Jeanine for the previous 11 years, I’ve witnessed first-hand her dedication to creating high quality packages that help homeless households and people in rebuilding their lives,” mentioned Lawrence.  “Her imaginative and prescient and management have enabled Emmaus to stay versatile within the face of latest challenges, nimbly reply to the evolving wants of these we serve, and guarantee Emmaus’ inexpensive housing legacy nicely into the longer term.”

Murphy got here to Emmaus after taking a month-long depart of absence from company administration place to provide again to her residence group. She started as a volunteer in 1988, serving to households safe housing, earlier than being named operations handle and, as of 2001, chief govt officer.

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When Murphy first took over as CEO, Emmaus owned 5 properties and 30 models of everlasting inexpensive housing.  At the moment, Emmaus owns 17 properties and 99 models of inexpensive housing. Emmaus has served greater than 40,000 males, ladies and kids since opening its first shelter in 1987.



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Massachusetts

Amid Mass. school budget crises, lawmakers weigh how to fix school funding system – The Boston Globe

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Amid Mass. school budget crises, lawmakers weigh how to fix school funding system – The Boston Globe


The recommendations could address budget challenges districts are facing due to causes including recent high inflation, the end of federal pandemic relief funds, and the rising costs of special education and student transportation.

“There are few issues as important as ensuring we have well-funded, high-quality public schools for all of our children, no matter what communities they live in,” Lewis said. “Even though the inflation rate has come down to more manageable levels, we had several years where inflation was quite high, and that has a real impact on school districts.”

Lewis helped lead the creation of the Student Opportunity Act, passed in 2019, which will add more than $1.5 billion to school budgets by 2027. Most of the new money has gone to Gateway Cities such as Springfield, Worcester, and Lawrence, which serve disproportionate numbers of high-needs students and depend heavily on state education funding. The law has also ensured all districts receive at least $30 more per student each year.

But that financial boost has been greatly eroded by inflation: its annual inflation cap is 4.5 percent, but inflation in the wake of the pandemic surged to more than 7 percent. It has since come back down, but the gap it created in district finances remains. Teachers and other school staff continue to seek raises to keep pace with the cost of living, including through increasingly frequent strikes.

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School leaders, teachers unions, and advocates have called for the state to cover the gap created by inflation. Lewis’s proposal appears to have early bipartisan support; Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr is a cosponsor of the bill, while Senate President Karen Spilka said in her inaugural address earlier this month she hopes to tackle school funding this year.

Ed Lambert, director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, said it made sense to try to address some of the challenges identified by Lewis, but said the state should not just be focused on how much money it provides districts.

“We need to really be prioritizing, along with how the money is distributed, how the money is being spent,” Lambert said. “If they’re not spending it on evidence-based practices … you can change the formula all you want, it’s not going to make a difference.”

Lambert’s group is one of those that would get a seat on the commission, according to the bill.

Other drivers of rising costs include special education, particularly the $1 billion-plus Massachusetts districts spend to send students with disabilities to specialized campuses, including private special education schools. The cost of transporting students — also often to special education schools — has also risen significantly.

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Making district finances more difficult is the state’s property tax cap, which limits increases to 2.5 percent annually unless voters approve an override at the polls. Dozens of communities have sought overrides in the last two years — often unsuccessfully.

Colin Jones, deputy policy director for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank that would get a seat on the commission, said in a statement his group has not taken a position on the bill, but immediate action is also necessary.

“Over the past five years, the Student Opportunity Act has added $1 billion in school funding across Massachusetts,“ Jones said. ”Even with that incredible progress, it is a fitting time to have a systemic review of K-12 funding.”

Lewis acknowledged the budget challenges go beyond the schools, and said he would also support reexamining how the state distributes other local aid, but education is his priority.

“The school budgets are typically by far the largest part of municipal budgets, so if a community is looking to have to make budget cuts, that’s often going to fall disproportionately on the schools,” he said.

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This year also marked the end of federal pandemic relief funds, which infused more than $2 billion into Massachusetts schools since 2020. That money was always known to be temporary, but it was used to “shore up the finances of many districts,” Lewis said. Other districts spent it on new staff, including tutors and extra classroom aides, to help their students, who are still behind their pre-pandemic peers.

Lewis noted the commission would take years to produce a new school funding formula and said the state should try to provide more funds to school districts on an annual basis in the meantime.

According to the bill text, the commission would also consider whether to remove the inflation cap on state aid, how to fund special education and transportation appropriately, and how to adapt to many districts losing enrollment, given state aid is largely allocated based on enrollment, except the state does not cut aid to districts with falling populations.

That could even include examining areas of potential cost savings, Lewis said, such as having small districts with declining enrollment share resources or consolidate.

The commission would include members of both parties in the state Legislature, the state education department, teachers unions, various municipal and school associations, and five appointees of the governor.

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The commission would also consider removing or altering a requirement for the state to assist even the wealthiest towns with their school budgets. The state calculates a “foundation budget” required to adequately educate the community’s students (though districts can and do spend more) and funds at least 17.5 percent of the foundation budget for every district.

Lambert said the commission should address that provision as well as the annual per-student increase received by every district, as both run counter to the system’s goal of sending more needs-based aid to needier districts.


Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.





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Close-knit Massachusetts figure skating community supporting each other after deadly plane crash

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Close-knit Massachusetts figure skating community supporting each other after deadly plane crash


LEXINGTON – The figure skating community in Massachusetts is lending support to each other after a plane crash near Washington, D.C. left six members of their community dead.

Figure skaters knew each other

Earlier this month WBZ-TV introduced viewers to Simon Mintz and Annie Huang. The pair of figure skating teens were bound for the U.S. Nationals in Wichita. Those who don’t qualify can go to an elite camp that follows the competition. It’s the same event that skaters were flying back from when their plane crashed into a military helicopter near Washington, D.C. No one survived.

WBZ-TV spoke with Mintz’s parents. They said had their son not qualified for the U.S. Nationals, he mostly likely would have been at the camp and possibly returning home on that flight. The notion has been on their minds.

“It’s eerie,” said Simon’s mother Linda Wertheimer Mintz.

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“We flew through Dallas, not D.C., but we just as easily could have gone through D.C.,” added Pavlik Mintz, Simon’s father.

They returned to Massachusetts last week, yet all day Thursday, the Mintzes have fielded texts and messages from people concerned they too were on the flight.

“It could have been us if they went to the camp this year instead of the championships,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, adding that Simon has been at the camp before, “We definitely knew both of the young skaters who were killed, not as great friends, but we knew them. And totally knew about Maxim Naumov’s parents. Over the years, we’ve certainly seen them around said, ‘Hi,’ to them.”

A second family

The parents of skater Maxim Naumov were Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, two coaches killed on the flight. Also in the crash were skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, along with their mothers.

“I remember going to the Edge in Bedford with my son for a skating lesson, and Maxim was practicing with his dad,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz.

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Simon and Annie recently were at a U.S. Nationals send off party at the Skating Club of Boston. They said Lane and Han were in attendance.

“The kids in particular would have been there sitting right near Simon and his partner,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, “When your kid becomes a skater, it’s like you all of a sudden have a second family.”

She has been messaging with other skate parents who have been trying to lend support to those who knew the families.

“I talked to one mom whose kid knew the kids, and they were heading out to be with their coaches,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, “It’s not just about being a tight community, this was the past, the present, and the future of U.S. figure skating that was on that plane too.”

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Outlook for Massachusetts shelter system is hazy as cash runs dry and time runs out – The Boston Globe

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Outlook for Massachusetts shelter system is hazy as cash runs dry and time runs out – The Boston Globe


Publicly, the Legislature has not put out a plan of how it will pay the bills and create new guidelines for the system. Governor Maura Healey delivered many of her own proposals in a letter, not actual legislation, and there’s no clarity on when the state Legislature could act to pour more money into the system, or what seismic policy shifts lawmakers could also embrace.

At the same time, President Trump is already tearing down tentpoles of the federal immigration system that many migrant families have relied upon, including two Biden-era programs under which migrants have been given permission to temporarily work and live in the country.

In other words: An already unprecedented situation is barreling into unknown territory, perhaps as soon as Friday.

That’s when Healey administration officials say they’ll be unable to make any payments or enter contracts for services within the emergency shelter system, absent a new infusion of cash. It’s left the nonprofit providers who the state has tapped to run shelters statewide skittish about the future.

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“Providers in everyone’s districts are putting more urgency to the need for funding,” state Senator Michael Moore, a Millbury Democrat, said Wednesday after Healey administration officials briefed Senate Democrats. “They’re worried about the funding not being there for them to pay for the services after the deadline.”

State officials said there’s often a lag between when providers bill them and when they’re paid. But it wasn’t immediately clear what would happen should Friday come and go without the Legislature approving more money for the system.

One housing provider, who requested anonymity to discuss communications with the state, told the Globe that Healey administration officials informed their organization that it would receive funding in February to cover January costs, but that payments would otherwise stop if the Legislature doesn’t act by Friday.

The system, and the Legislature, have faced similar pressure before. Lawmakers passed a supplemental spending bill at the end of April last year at a time when Healey said funding was running low.

Months earlier, her administration warned the system would run out of cash early in 2024 if the state did not set a limit on how many families could enter the system — as well as receive more funding from the Legislature. Healey ultimately capped the system at 7,500 families — a limit that remains today — and the Legislature pushed an overdue spending bill to Healey’s desk over Republican objections with weeks to spare.

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The latest attempt, however, has its own complications. Healey initially asked lawmakers in early January to dedicate $425 million to the system, while also cutting the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.

Then, days later, she proposed a series of dramatic changes to the state’s unique right-to-shelter law. But she made that request in a letter, without proposing actual legislation, prompting a series of questions from House leaders who said they needed more information before proposing their own bill.

Members of Healey’s Cabinet sent back a 23-page response Monday night, but they did not say how much their various proposals could ultimately save the state — information that would otherwise influence how much money lawmakers set aside for the system for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June.

The circumstances have left the Legislature’s Democratic leaders to weigh far-reaching policy and funding decisions while facing a short clock and their own internal limitations. The House and Senate have yet to announce committee or leadership assignments, assign first-year lawmakers to offices, or vote on rules that will govern their two-year legislative calendar. All legislators began their new term on Jan. 1.

At a news conference Wednesday, Healey declined to give more detail about how the state will continue to fund the system. Lawmakers have not filed legislation of their own and the House, which must act first, does not have a formal session scheduled this week, when a spending bill could theoretically emerge for a vote.

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State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House budget chief who sent Healey officials questions last week, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

“I know discussions are going on right now with the Legislature. I know they’re aware of the calendar on this,” Healey told reporters at an unrelated event at her office Wednesday. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get some resolution.”

Down the hall, Healey’s housing secretary, Ed Augustus, gave a closed-door presentation on the shelter system to Senate Democrats. But he declined to divulge what was discussed to reporters, or whether he gave a similar meeting to House members. He also didn’t respond to a Globe reporter who asked what the plan is for when the cash runs dry.

It’s also unclear if senators were satisfied with the answers they received.

“Lots of questions, lots of questions,” state Senator Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, told reporters after she left the meeting. She declined to further comment.

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The shelter system has sagged under soaring demand in the last few years, demand fueled in part by a surge in migrants fleeing violence and economic instability in their home countries. A report Healey officials filed with lawmakers Monday said that nearly 700 families had applied for shelter in the two weeks between Jan. 9 and Jan. 23, while just 220 families exited the system.

State officials said there were 6,290 families in the system as of Wednesday, far below the state-imposed cap.

Healey has repeatedly sought to tighten the system, and pledged to move out the thousands of families currently being housed in hotels or motels by year’s end. She told lawmakers earlier this month she wants a variety of changes to state law, including eliminating so-called presumed eligibility in the state’s screening process.

Under current law, shelter applicants don’t need to provide documentation upfront that they meet the system’s wide-ranging eligibility requirements. Healey instead wants to require that the state first verify identity, residency, and other information before someone is admitted to the system.

Healey also wants a requirement that all shelter applicants show they have “an intent to remain in Massachusetts,” either through what she called “independent documentary verification,” or by having a “physical presence” here over the previous three months. She also proposed reducing the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.

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State Senator Liz Miranda, a Roxbury Democrat, said some of the Healey administration’s proposals give her pause.

“People can’t find housing in six months, right? They can’t find it in nine months,” she said.


Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.





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