A petition warrant article will ask Rindge voters if they want to request a study to examine withdrawing from the Jaffrey-Rindge School District.
If passed in March, the article will request that the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board create a committee to study “the feasibility and suitability of a plan for dissolution” of the district.
“This is not a motion to withdraw or dissolve, it’s just to get information,” said Rindge Selectwoman Roberta Oeser, who filed the petition.
The article will only appear in front of Rindge voters, as it is on the town’s ballot and not the district’s. State law allows for a town to request that a district complete such a study by a majority vote of a warrant article after the district has been in operation for a decade.
“I don’t know how it’s going to turn out. I do hope that people in Rindge realize this is not a vote to dissolve, this is a vote to see what the feasibility and cost is,” Oeser said.
This year’s petition article represents the “logical next step” in trying to provide some tax relief for the people of Rindge, Oeser said.
“We can’t afford to keep subsidizing Jaffrey,” Oeser said.
Rindge has been paying more than 50 percent of the district’s budget since at least 2011-12, with Rindge having a higher property valuation and Jaffrey having more students over that period.
The argument centers around the school district’s apportionment formula – the formula used to calculate how costs are divided between the two towns within the district.
Currently, the formula is a 50-50 mix of each town’s average student membership and equalized property values.
Oeser submitted a petition warrant article during the school district’s 2017 voting session to eliminate property values from the formula, but it was altered during the district’s deliberative session to establish a committee to examine the apportionment formula for fairness.
In 2018, a district-created article that would have phased in a shift to a 100 percent student membership-based funding formula after six years failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.
While 90.8 percent of Rindge voters were in favor of the article, 96.5 percent of Jaffrey voters went against it – netting at 47.8 percent approval between the two towns.
“If this study shows it would be extremely expensive for the towns [to dissolve the district,] maybe Jaffrey will be more amenable to changing the apportionment formula,” Oeser said.
Oeser said the discussion to put such a warrant on the Rindge ballot this year came from a discussion between the Rindge half of the apportionment committee following the vote in 2018.
“I think the study is something that would give a lot of good information to both towns,” Oeser said.
If passed, a committee comprised of one school board member and select board member from each town and other community members would meet to research the dissolution of the district.
State law says the committee would have to report its findings to the state’s board of education within 180 days of its first meeting.
The report, which also would be sent to the school board, would indicate where dissolution was recommended, not recommended, or if more time for a decision was needed.
If withdrawal of a town was recommended, the committee would be tasked with drafting a withdrawal plan by Nov. 1.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.