Residents in Royalton and Bethel will vote on the budget of the White River Unified School District during its first annual meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, at the Whitcomb Jr./Sr. High School Gymnasium in Bethel.
Bethel
“Next year, there will be additional savings for both communities,” including Royalton, according to Lisa Floyd, chairwoman of the new six-member White River Unified School Board and of the soon-to-be-defunct Bethel School Board.
Under the new K-12 district, which takes effect in July, middle school students will go to Bethel and high school students will go to Royalton.
The new budget represents about $500,000 more in spending than the current combined budgets of the Bethel School District ($5.3 million) and Royalton School District ($5.8 million), but a quirk in Act 46, the law that governed the school district merger, means that extra spending will not play into changes in the tax rate this year — and could help to reduce taxes in future years, according to School Board member Andrew Jones.
“We’re temporarily increasing spending this year to take advantage of an Act 46 provision,” Jones said. “As part of Act 46, a town involved in a merger can’t have its equalized tax rate increase or decrease by more than 5 percent.”
And because Royalton is at that 5 percent cap, it allowed the district to spend about $600,000 on one-time expenses without triggering additional tax increases. Under the proposed budget, board members would spend about $200,000 on a new boiler at the Bethel school, $150,000 on a suite of smaller facility upgrades, $50,000 on staff development and roll about $160,000 into the following year’s budget.
Floyd said that, in order to equalize the education opportunities across the district, the budget funds the introduction of world language classes at the elementary level in Royalton, and programs like an outdoor learning experience, health education and technology learning across the district’s upper grade levels.
“We’ve actually added positions, to make sure it really meets the needs of our kids,” Floyd said.
The tax rate change in both towns also was impacted by changes in the Common Level of Appraisal, a component of the state education funding formula that seeks to equalize property assessments.
In all, the education property tax rate in Royalton is projected to increase from $1.40 per $100 of assessed property value to $1.50, an increase of 7.2 percent, or $254 on a home valued at $250,000.
In Bethel, the education property tax rate under the proposed budget would decrease from $1.59 to $1.51, or 5.2 percent, which equates to a $205 decrease in the tax bill of a $250,000 home. Had the cap not been in play, Bethel’s rate would have declined by about 18 percent, according to Floyd.
Elsewhere within the White River Valley Supervisory Union, three other newly merged two-town districts — Rochester and Stockbridge, Hancock and Granville, and Chelsea and Tunbridge — have not yet formulated their budgets, and are not expected to do so in time for the traditional Town Meeting days in those communities, according to Superintendent Bruce Labs.
Because the board has not yet been seated for the newly formed First Branch Unified School District, which will serve Chelsea and Tunbridge, that entity is not expected to present its budget for at least a few months, Labs said.
For the other two districts, Labs said he thought the new budgets likely would be ready to present to voters in late March or April.
Floyd said the White River Unified School Board is trying to make sure that voters in Royalton know that the first meeting is taking place on March 6 in Bethel. It will alternate locations between the two towns on subsequent years.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.