HANOVER — Dresden voters in March will consider budgets for their combined school system that could result in school-tax rate increases of almost 1.1% in Hanover and of nearly 4.2% in neighboring Norwich.
The Dresden School District, which oversees Hanover High School and Richmond Middle School, is proposing to spend $27.8 million during the 2020-2021 school year, up nearly 3.2% from the current school year, according to brochures that Dresden officials plan to mail to residents of both towns on Friday.
The Hanover School District, which teaches children in K-grade 5 at the Ray Elementary School and pays Dresden to teach the town’s sixth-graders, foresees spending $15.7 million — an increase of more than $1.1 million. Officials for SAU 70 attributes $935,000 of that bump to a population boom: 15 more Hanover sixth-graders are attending Richmond this school year than the district expected at budget time in 2019, and the Ray School expects 30 more fifth graders to move on to Richmond in 2020-2021.
“There’s a bubble right now,” SAU 70 Business Administrator Jamie Teague said on Thursday. “We would love to know what’s causing all of this.”
To offset some of the rise in tuition payments to Dresden, Hanover plans to withdraw $270,000 from a reserve fund for sixth-grade tuition increases. And a separate article on the Hanover district warrant asks voters to help replenish the tuition fund by transferring $100,000 from the general-fund balance that remains in the current budget come June 30.
The SAU estimates that Hanover’s spending plan, together with the assessment to Hanover residents from the Dresden budget, would trigger an overall tax rate increase of 26 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in Hanover, assuming all other articles on the warrant pass. That translates to $104 in additional taxes on a $400,000 property in the town.
The Norwich School District projects spending almost $13 million in 2020-2021, $6.2 million of it to run the Marion Cross School for kindergarten through grade six and $6.75 million to send its students in grades seven to 12 to Richmond Middle School and Hanover High School.
Spending at Marion Cross itself would rise almost 6%. Almost $263,000 more would go to Marion Cross teacher salaries, including $189,000 for three additional full-time teachers and one part-time teacher. While current estimates foresee enrollment in 2020-2021 staying equal to the numbers of students now attending Marion Cross, the addition of teachers reflects an overall population jump of 25 this current academic year from what school officials expected early in 2019.
“Whether it’s the economy or the quality of the schools or a combination,” Teague said, “people with children are moving in, on both sides of the river.”
Based on current estimates for 2020-2021, the SAU projects an overall school-tax increase for Norwich of 10.43 cents per $100 of assessed property value, a rate that “results in an increase of $417 on a $400,000 home,” the Norwich School District brochure notes. Much of that jump, the brochure adds, is a result of a drop in Norwich’s common level of appraisal, the value of the town’s grand list equalized against other Vermont towns.
The warrant for the combined Dresden School District includes a petitioned article asking voters to appropriate $275,000 to improve drainage and “playability” at the Hanover High baseball field in Norwich. The Dresden School Board is recommending that voters reject the article, noting on the warrant that the district’s athletic advisory committee “needs a bit more time to work through all of the district’s needs and bring forth a prioritized list.”
Approval of the article would commit Hanover taxpayers to an additional $170,381 and Norwich taxpayers to $77,778, officials estimate.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.
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Norwich residents will vote on school-related articles from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, at Tracy Hall. The floor meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, March 2, also at Tracy Hall.
The Hanover School District’s annual discussion meeting is at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, in the Hanover High School auditorium, and the combined Dresden meeting will follow at 7 p.m. Hanover residents will vote on school warrant articles from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, in the Hanover High gym.