After shifting enrollment numbers caused a spike in Lyndeborough’s school tax rate this year, the School Board and Budget Committee agreed to trim the 2017-18 budget to reach a goal of lowering Lyndeborough’s rate by $1 next year.
Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative District decides the devision of cost using a formula that is based half on student population and half on the town’s valuation. This year, Lyndeborough’s portion of the cost spiked when Lyndeborough’s student population increased by seven while Wilton’s dropped by 20.
Slight swings in how the cost is divied up aren’t unusual, said School Board Chair Geoff Brock, but this change was dramatic, leading to a jump in Lyndeborough’s school tax rate from $13.96 to $15.50, despite not having a dramatic increase in the school budget.
“They got hit hard this year,” said Brock. “It’s never happened that big before.”
During Tuesday’s School Board meeting, Brock told the board that based on projected student numbers, the currently proposed budget and the teacher’s collective bargaining agreement, Lyndeborough’s tax portion will likely go down next year, but suggested trimming a further $16,461 from the 2017-18 proposed budget to lower Lyndeborough’s tax rate by a dollar.
Brock suggested that eliminating the planned purchase of a floor burnisher at Florence Rideout and a more age-appropriate slide for Lyndeborough Central could meet that number, but also proposed that the decision of where cuts would come from ultimately come from the school’s administrators.
The School Board agreed to the cut, leaving the proposed budget at $12,514,604.