The Jaffrey-Rindge School Board has unanimously recommended seven warrant articles for consideration in March, including a $25.4 million operating budget and a $2.1 million bond for parking lot renovations at the district’s two elementary schools.
If all warrant articles were to pass in March, the district estimates a local school tax rate of $16.96 for Jaffrey and a tax rate of $17.79 for Rindge – an increase of $1.35 for Jaffrey and $1.42 for Rindge over last year’s rates. The estimated impact on a $200,000 home in Rindge would be $284.46, while the impact of the same home in Jaffrey would be $270.87.
The proposed bond would allow the district to address a number of safety, parking, drainage, and traffic flow issues at Rindge Memorial School and Jaffrey Grade School.
“We are focusing on the elementary schools because there are clear circulation issues,” board chair Laurel McKenzie said, during a bond hearing on Monday night.
District Facilities Manager David Reilly said the Jaffrey Grade School project would entail closing off the driveway on the south side of the building so that only pedestrian and emergency traffic can enter, combining the paved and dirt paved parking lot to create additional parking capacity, repairing drainage issues around the school, and increasing lighting the parking lots.
Reilly said the plan also calls for separating the bus and car traffic, with parent pickup and drop off occurring on Charlonne Street and bus loading and unloading occurring on School Street.
“Showcasing the worst parts of this is how you are going to get it passed,” Rindge resident Deanna Wilson said. Wilson, who previously had kids at RMS remembered the parking lot and traffic flow to be “atrocious.”
At Rindge Memorial School, the plan would be to utilize a district-owned parcel of land between the school and the Rindge Historical Society to create additional parking spaces and separate car and bus traffic.
“I have come to the school to drop things off a few times over the past few years and oftentimes I can’t find a parking space,” board member and former RMS teacher Heidi Graff said.
The district released a preliminary bond schedule during the hearing Monday, showing a $251,140 average annual payment for a ten year bond with a 3.5 percent interest rate.
The warrant article calls for an additional $52,500 to be raised for the first bond payment.
If passed as currently proposed, this year’s operating budget represents a .12 percent increase over last year’s figure. The proposed operating budget is also just over $100,000 less than the default budget.
There are a number of notable staffing changes proposed in this year’s budget, including the addition of a middle/high school secretary, an assistant principal for the elementary schools, and making the part-time athletic director position a fulltime activities director position.
“Our focus has been to make sure that our educational system is well funded, but also to make sure that we are sensitive to the needs of the taxpayers in both communities,” Superintendent Reuben Duncan said.
There is also a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Jaffrey-Rindge Education Association proposed on the warrant. The estimated salary increases in the agreement would be $308,509 for 2019-20, $311,070 for 2020-21, and $325,123 for 2021-22.
Duncan said the board and JREA have unanimously ratified the agreement, which eliminates the first three steps of the district’s salary schedule among other things.
“At the higher end of the salary schedule we are very competitive,” McKenzie said. “At the beginning of the salary schedule we were not, which is why we worked with the JREA membership to see if we could reduce that schedule… it makes us competitive with our neighbors.”
Reilly also spoke to the need to raise $190,000 in order to repair roofs at the Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School and Rindge Memorial School.
Both schools have rubber roofs that are well over their life expectancy. Because of this, Reilly said, there are many leaks that are causing damage to both schools.
Two other articles are on the warrant this year: raising up to $200,000 from the district’s June 30 fund balance to allow the school board to acquire property next to any of the schools in the district, and the election of three school board members and a district moderator.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.