Voters in the Mascoma Valley Regional School District will elect three School Board members, three Budget Committee members and vote on a budget and other warrant articles on Tuesday, March 14.
Polls open at 8 a.m. in Grafton at the town’s fire station, and at the same time in Canaan at Canaan Hall. Polls will also open at 8 a.m. in Enfield at Whitney Hall. Polls open in Orange and Dorchester at 11 a.m. in the Dorchester Town Hall and Orange Town House. All polls close at 7 p.m
West Canaan
The Mascoma Valley Regional School District is proposing a $27.5 million budget for the 2017-18 school year, a 3.7 percent increase over the current budget. If that budget is voted down, a default budget of $27.3 million would go into effect.
Officials said the budget increase is largely the result of fixed costs, including additional spending for retirement and health care.
The district also signed a new, more expensive bus contract this year, and will see more financial demand for special education. Roughly $6.1 million of the proposed budget is dedicated to special education, an increase of $460,000 over the current school year’s spending.
The budget also includes a $1.3 million bond earmark to go toward the debt from the $21.5 million high school renovation project.
It’s not known how the budget will impact district tax rates, which are distributed among Mascoma’s five towns based on enrollment. The district doesn’t provide estimated rates ahead of the budget vote.
The district also is asking voters to approve a new three-year bargaining agreement with the Mascoma Valley Regional Education Association. If it’s approved, the contract would cost the district an additional $275,436 in its first year, followed by a $252,917 increase in 2018-19 and $249,447 in 2019-20.
Voters will also see a warrant article calling for the creation of a study committee to review how taxes are allocated.
The article was initially proposed by town officials in Canaan, who said school tax increases were putting too much of a burden on residents.
Instead of taxes being based solely off of enrollment, they proposed changing the tax formula so that some would be based on a town’s valuation.
Canaan’s proposal would have decreased the town’s tax burden by about $600,000, while shifting an additional $500,000 in costs to neighboring Enfield. Dorchester would have seen a slight increase under the plan, and Orange and Grafton would have seen decreases.
However, voters at the school district’s deliberative session decided to amend Canaan’s proposal, and voted 358-12 to change the article’s language so a committee would be responsible for exploring school funding. If the article is approved, the committee’s report is due by Oct. 1, 2017.
Residents also changed a petitioned warrant article at deliberative session that originally called for the School Board to replace Superintendent Patrick Andrew. Thirty-six petitioners submitted the article, which called for Andrew to be replaced by someone willing to introduce lower budgets.
But more than 300 people who participated in the deliberative session rallied behind Andrew, and unanimously voted to change the article so that it instead commends him for his work in the district.
Also on the ballot, voters will decide one contested race for School Board.
Incumbent Brewster Gove is being challenged for the Grafton seat by current budget committee member David Tupper Jr. The winner will serve a three-year term.
School Board incumbents Cookie Hebert, of Dorchester, and Kathleen Stacy, of Orange, are running unopposed for three-year year seats.
The Budget Committee also has three uncontested races. Margaret Currier-Lemay, of Dorchester, is running for her first term on the committee along with Catherine Mulholland, of Grafton. Incumbent Scott Sanborn, of Orange, is also running unopposed.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.