The Jaffrey-Rindge School District will hold budget development meeting this Saturday.
The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. and take place at Conant High School. During the meeting, presentations will be made for each of the schools and other districtwide budgets, with an opportunity for the board to discuss the budgets after.
In preparation for the meeting, board vice chair Charlie Eicher made a presentation about the student/teacher ratio in Jaffrey-Rindge, arguing that the district’s low ratio does not mean anything in terms of measuring academic achievement.
“The bottom line is that when the student/teacher ratio is down, taxpayer cost goes up,” said Eicher, who argued that staffing levels should be looked at in the upcoming budget deliberations.
Jaffrey-Rindge has the third lowest student/teacher ratio of like-sized districts in the state, according to Eicher’s research, but is ranked seventh in math proficiency, sixth in reading proficiency, and eighth in lowest cost per pupil.
Some of the board members argued against the idea of cutting staff, saying that cuts could lead to fewer course offerings.