Jaffrey and Rindge residents will get a chance to discuss the recently challenged school district funding formula at Feb. 8 deliberative session.
The session, which is set for Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Pratt Auditorium in Jaffrey, will let voters examine the six articles on the warrant, including a petition article that asks the district to change the formula to determine what each town pays into the district.
The petition — submitted by Rindge resident Roberta Oeser — asks voters to amend the district’s Articles of Agreement to have all expenses be divided between Jaffrey and Rindge based on each town’s average daily membership of students.
Currently, the apportionment formula is a 50-50 mix of each town’s average daily membership of students and equalized property valuations.
It is estimated that Rindge will shoulder 51.4 percent of any monetary articles approved at Town Meeting under the current formula, according to the district.
A preliminary estimate from School Board Chair Laurel McKenzie shows that Rindge’s tax rate would decrease about $2, while Jaffrey’s rate would increase about $2.50 if the article was approved. The 2017-18 estimated local education tax rates are $16.84 for Jaffrey and $17.46 for Rindge under the current formula.
Between the 2011-12 and 2016-17 school years, Rindge has paid anywhere from 50.6 to 52.2-percent of the budget, according to information on the district website. Rindge pays more because despite having less students, the town has a higher property valuation.
McKenzie said Wednesday that she and Superintendent Reuben Duncan have been searching through annual reports dating back to 1970 to look at previous year’s apportionment totals.
McKenzie said she hopes to have information to present during Monday’s School Board meeting, after she and Duncan have had an opportunity to distill the information gathered.
While the district’s apportionment formula has slightly favored Jaffrey for at least the past seven years, recent state adequacy aid figures have helped to further skew the apportionment total.
State adequacy aid is money given back to the districts by the state in order to provide an adequate education. While the state’s formula uses average daily membership of students, additional factors — such as number of free and reduced lunch, special education, English language learners, and grade 3 reading below proficiency students – are taken into account when determining how much aid is given. Property valuation is also a factor in this formula.
Current estimations show that Jaffrey will get $4.3 million in total state aid for the 2017-18 school year, $1.6 million more than Rindge. In addition to having more students, Jaffrey also has more students that fit the above student populations.
Between the 2011-12 and 2016-17 school years, Jaffrey has received anywhere from $1.5 million to $1.8 million more in state aid than Rindge.
When combining the district’s current formula and state aid figures, the percentage that Rindge pays grows to an estimated 57.1-percent in 2017-18.
The petition article requires a 2/3 majority vote and if passed, must be approved by the NH Board of Education.
The other warrant articles are: $2.9 million for district-wide heating upgrades; the $25.4 million operating budget (the default budget is $26 million); the $180,000 from the district’s capital reserve account to repair Conant High School’s Applied Technology Center building and a question whether to raise the cap on the School Board’s authority to expend funds from the capital reserve account from $100,000 to $150,000.