A Hancock select board member voiced concerns about forthcoming tax-rate increases after voters approved a one-year contract for ConVal teachers, special services professionals, and paraprofessionals in March.
John Jordan reported to school board members Tuesday night that the Selectman’s Advisory Committee recently met for its monthly meeting. The main issue discussed, he said, was the impact that implementing a roughly $1.685 million fact finder’s report will have on residents.
The third-party fact finder’s report was completed after negotiations between the school board and the ConVal Education Association, the local union, reached an impasse. The union voted to approve the fact finder’s report. The school board unanimously voted to strike it down. Voters passed the report, which resulted in wage increases that ranged from 3 percent to about 39 percent, according to a document provided by the SAU office.
Jordan said the tax-rate increase as a result of its approval is “likely to create pushback.”
“Everyone knows Newton’s third law, ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Jordan said. “And I think there is going to be quite a reaction from the increase in the tax rate.”
He urged the district to try its best to return as much surplus to the towns as possible in order to help offset the spike.
An estimated tax impact of implementing the fact finder’s report in each of the nine towns within the ConVal school district is posted on the district’s website. The estimated tax impacts range from 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in Antrim to 89 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in Temple. On a property assessed at about $200,000, that works out to be about $150.75 in Antrim and about $178.92 in Temple.
ConVal’s Superintendent Kimberly Saunders said in response to Jordan’s comment that the district works diligently every year to save money.
“I would just remind the Selectman’s Advisory Committee that every single year we work really hard to save money and work towards giving at least something back to the taxpayers,” Saunders said.
She followed the comment by saying that the district has been working to make the budget “tighter and tighter” in recent years, which makes it less likely that the district will have a surplus left at the end of the year to give back to towns.
In March 2016, the district announced that it would return $1 million to offset tax bills, as a result of the health-care coverage coming in under the projected costs, Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements, and Medicaid reimbursements, according to a news release posted on the district’s website.
“We always work to save money, we always work to give money back,” Saunders said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, a member of the union announced it will move from having two co-presidents to a model that has one president and one vice president.
Patrick Cogan, who previously held a co-president title, has been announced as the union’s president, he told school board members during the meeting.
Shannon Dunning, a teacher at Peterborough Elementary School, will take on the role as vice president.
Linda Compton, who was once a co-president, no longer holds the title.
Cogan invited board members to a CVEA meet-and-greet during the meeting as well. School board members agreed that Wednesday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. would be the best day to host the meeting.
Cogan said the CVEA will provide light food and drinks. The event will be held in the district’s SAU office.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.