Enfield
The spending plan for the 2017-18 fiscal year is up 3.7 percent for the district that serves 1,166 students from Enfield, Canaan, Orange, Dorchester and Grafton.
If voters fail to pass the School Board’s proposal in March, a default budget of roughly $27.3 million will take effect.
“I feel that this is a very tight budget,” said Debra Ford, the district’s business administrator, on Thursday.
Much of the budget increase comes from rising health care and retirement costs, Ford said. Contracted salary increases and a new transportation agreement also add to those costs, she said.
“One other area that increases pretty much every year is special education,” Ford said.
That’s set to hold true in the coming year too. About $6.1 million of the proposed budget is expected to go into special education, up about $460,000 from this year.
In a separate warrant article, voters will be asked to approve a new collective bargaining agreement with teachers. School officials estimate that would cost an additional $275,000 in 2017-18, followed by an increase of $253,000 in 2018-19 and $249,447 in its final year.
Ford said she doesn’t yet know how the increases will impact town tax rates, which are apportioned based on a formula that includes student population and each community’s property valuation. Information on how much of the budget will be raised from taxes wasn’t available from budget material on the district’s website.
The amount some communities pay has led to contention between towns and the School Board. Residents of four towns voted down a proposed $27.4 million budget last year, with only Enfield supporting the proposal.
This month, representatives from Canaan came to the board to express concerns about the apportionment formula and district spending.
Canaan has the sixth highest school tax rate in New Hampshire, according to a presentation from Town Administrator Mike Samson. Meanwhile, municipal spending has remained relativity flat.
Over the past three years Canaan’s town tax rate has increased a little over 3 percent to $6.64 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value in 2016. The tax impact of the school district has increased more than 21 percent over the same time period, to $20.65 in 2016.
Samson recommended several steps to combat those increases, including cutting spending, limiting pay increases and looking to state and federal resources for more aid.
His presentation also took aim how School Board members are elected. Although each board member represents a seat (Canaan and Enfield have two) from their town, board members are chosen by all Mascoma voters.
“School Board members must be (accountable) to taxpayers in the town they are from so that they can defend the taxes in that town and not (be) insulated from the taxpayers by votes from other towns,” Samson wrote in the presentation.
School Board Chairwoman Cookie Hebert contested Samson’s view in a phone interview on Sunday. She said each board member works hard to craft a fiscally responsible budget. The district also has a budget committee that meets regularly and oversees new budgets.
“Everyone works very hard,” she said. “The budget process, it’s a very in-depth process and everyone works together.”
Hebert understands some taxpayers will be upset by the budget, but said the board was faced with difficult decisions this year.
“You can bring that information back you your towns, you can bring it back to your residents but you’re going to get pushback,” she said, especially from people who don’t have students attending school.
The district’s deliberative session is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 at Mascoma Valley Regional High School.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.