Voters in the Mount Ascutney School District will meet at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, at Windsor High School for the informational meeting. The town of Windsor’s informational meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 4, at Windsor High School. Voting by Australian ballot will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, in the municipal building in Windsor and in Story Memorial Hall for West Windsor residents.
WINDSOR — Voters in West Windsor and Windsor will vote on March 5 on the Mount Ascutney School District’s first budget, following last year’s merging of the two school districts under Act 46, the state’s school consolidation law.
The proposed budget of $11.6 million would result in a tax decrease for West Windsor property owners of 39 cents per $100 of valuation, and a 23 cent increase in Windsor.
In the district report, Elizabeth Burrows, chairwoman of the transitional School Board, said for the first year the budget represents the merging of budgets developed by the different schools, but that will not be the case going forward, as the new district officially begins on July 1. Burrows, a West Windsor resident, said the dramatic shift in tax rates was not unexpected.
She said Windsor’s homestead rate will increase by 20 percent to $1.42 per $100 of assessed valuation and West Windsor’s will drop to $1.47, a 21 percent decrease.
“The positive upshot of all this is that the two towns’ tax rate will level out; the rate will stabilize over the coming years, particularly as we get further into savings associated with being part of a merged district,” Burrows wrote.
Ed Connors, business manager of Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, said increases in special education costs and health insurance are driving increases for the new district. The number of students with individual education plans, a component of special education services, in the four-town supervisory union has increased by nearly 100 to 243 between 2014 and 2018.
A drop in the common level of appraisal for Windsor, which went to around 103 percent from 106 percent, and loss of tuition revenue from West Windsor students attending Windsor High School are factors contributing to Windsor’s tax increase. The budget represents an $84,000, or less than 1 percent, increase from the combined school budgets of West Windsor and Windsor for the current year. Broken down, West Windsor’s spending is down 14.7 percent, while Windsor’s is up 6.6 percent for the coming year.
The new Mount Ascutney School Board will include the three current members of the West Windsor Board, as well as Amy McMullen, Beth Carter and Kris Garnjost from Windsor’s current five-member School Board. Additionally, as Windsor closes out its school district by the end of the calendar year, the board’s other two members, Sherrie Greeley and Carl Malikowski, are running unopposed to serve until Dec. 31.
The Windsor municipal budget of $5.14 million represents a 3 percent increase from the current year’s and, if approved along with the $160,000 in special agency appropriations contained in separate articles, would add about 6 cents to the municipal tax rate, bringing it to $1.58 per $100 of assessed valuation, Town Manager Tom Marsh said.
Salaries and wages for police and fire personnel, an increase in capital spending of $50,000 and higher debt service were the main factors for the budget increase. Marsh said a stronger focus on employee safety is beginning to pay off with a $30,000 drop in workers’ compensation.
Voters also will be asked to approve a $1 million bond for the purpose of acquiring and removing blighted properties. Marsh said the Selectboard would only authorize borrowing on the bond in the event a property needs to be cleaned up at the town’s expense.
In contested Selectboard races, former Selectboard member Clayton Paronto is in a three-way race with James Reed and Eric Saltonstall for a three-year seat, while former state Rep. Paul Belaski and Kelly Blue are seeking a two-year seat. Incumbents Jeff White and Rich Thomas are not seeking re-election.
McMullen, who was appointed town clerk following Sandra Micka’s resignation over a pay dispute, is running unopposed to complete the last year of Micka’s unexpired three-year term. Micka, meanwhile, is running unopposed for Mount Ascutney School District clerk.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
