The annual Hanover school meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 4 at Hanover High School. Norwich’s deliberative session is at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 6, at Tracy Hall. Voting in both towns will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7. Hanover voting will be in the Hanover High gymnasium, and Norwich residents may cast their ballots at Tracy Hall.
Hanover
Those increases translate to about $40 more on a $400,000 house in Hanover and $304 more on the same property in Norwich.
Justin Campfield, vice chairman of the Norwich School Board, pointed out in an email on Friday that actual spending at Marion Cross School was increasing by 2.1 percent, versus the nearly 6 percent increase in per-pupil spending, and that the rising tax figure in Norwich included a significant increase in the assessment from Dresden, the joint Hanover-Norwich district.
Campfield also noted that Norwich may benefit from pending Vermont legislation that would recognize some previously uncounted pre-K students in equalized pupil numbers and therefore lower the town tax rate.
“The bill would increase our enrollment, thus lowering our per-pupil figure,” he said.
SAU 70 Superintendent Frank Bass said education officials worked together across districts to make trims from their original proposals.
“The budgets came in even lower than we anticipated, and I think the boards did an excellent job of keeping costs down while at the same time maintaining the quality of our programs,” he said in a telephone interview on Friday.
As proposed, the spending budget for the Norwich School District, which covers Marion Cross School, is increasing by just over 2 percent to $5.57 million. Changes in enrollment, however, mean that per-pupil spending, the figure more directly linked to Vermont school tax rates, is expected to increase almost 6 percent to $18,799.
Major contributors to the overall spending increase include special education costs, transportation and an expanded pre-K program, according to Campfield and budget documents.
The Norwich budget does not include possible cost increases stemming from teacher raises; Marion Cross teachers in December reached an impasse in contract negotiations with the School Board.
A record number of Vermont teachers’ contracts are coming due in June which, according to a Feb. 21 report from VtDigger, is contributing to statewide pressure on union negotiators to avoid increases to teachers’ costs for health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
Norwich teachers initially asked for reimbursement of up to 98 percent of their health premiums, and later revised the ask to about 88 percent of premiums and a similar rate for maximum out-of-pocket costs — a request with which the School Board was unable to agree.
Expenditures in the Hanover School District, which oversees the Ray School, are rising to $13.8 million, a change of nearly 1 percent including outside warrant articles.
The increase comes mostly from New Hampshire retirement system rates, which are expected to increase for teachers by nearly 11 percent, and from New Hampshire insurance trusts, whose costs could rise as much as 17 percent.
Both towns pay a share of the Dresden School District’s budget proportional to their enrollment. Dresden administers Richmond Middle School and Hanover High School.
For the coming school year, Dresden’s proposed spending plan is $26 million, an increase of about 2.5 percent.
The cost increases from New Hampshire insurance and retirement systems are expected to affect Dresden, as well.
Pending legislation may affect property taxes in New Hampshire, too, according to SAU 70 Business Administrator Jamie Teague. Teague said on Friday that SB 193, a state Senate bill that would establish a voucher program for state adequacy payments, could result in extra costs for Hanover.
The legislation would allow students attending nonpublic schools to take their state adequacy payments with them. Teague said the change could result in a compensatory increase in the statewide school tax rate, which factors into Hanover’s finances.
The bill cleared an early procedural hurdle in the Senate this week.
There are no contested races on the Norwich School Board, where Tom Candon and Jim Mackall are running uncontested for re-election.
On the Hanover School Board, four candidates are running for three seats: David Sobel, Mimi Lichtenstein, Richard A. Johnson and Carey Callaghan. All except Johnson are incumbents.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.