Residents are set to hear and have the opportunity to amend the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District’s warrant Wednesday, including a proposed $27.5 million budget.
The budget is expected to have an estimated tax impact of $3.09 per $1,000 of assessed value for Jaffrey and an increase of 94 cents per $1,000 for Rindge. If all proposed warrant articles pass unamended, the overall estimated tax increase would be $4.28 per $1,000 in Jaffrey and $1.84 per $1,000 in Rindge.
Superintendent Reuben Duncan stated that the main increases in the proposed budget are “inflationary costs of items and services.”
“Throughout the budget process this year, our district, School Board and Finance Committee have all made efforts to keep the proposed budget as low as possible. This effort has resulted in cutting items that are in our current 2021-22 district budget,” Duncan stated.
Those cuts include two SAU personnel positions, which reduced the budget $118,000; eliminating anticipated Chromebook laptop purchases and teacher laptops, saving $102,000; facility improvements, including painting and carpeting and new equipment for $70,000; plus an additional $75,000 in equipment and supplies.
“Given that we haven’t added anything to this year’s proposed operating budget, any further cuts (which includes the default budget) would represent a removal of staffing and/or programming,” Duncan stated.
One of the drivers of the increase is special education costs, which have risen by as much as 200 percent for the district in the last year. This year’s student services budget is expected to be exceeded by about $440,000 for special education services.
One of the key factors in Jaffrey’s tax rate is student enrollment. Jaffrey and Rindge’s share of the budget is calculated partially on the number of students from each town enrolled in the district.
Between 2019 and 2020, district enrollment decreased by a total of 142 students. Enrollment increased from 2020 to 2021, but only by a total of 28 students, leaving a net loss of 114 students in the past two years, and the balance remaining results in a heavier burden on Jaffrey than pre-pandemic.
“We do attribute much of this loss to COVID-19, with some families choosing another educational option during the pandemic. Primary reasons for leaving the district have included masking (both requiring and not requiring) and remote learning (offering and not offering). At this point in time, we are predicting a flat enrollment moving forward,” district Communications Coordinator Nicholas Handy stated. “We noticed that some families chose to return to the district this year because of a more streamlined approach to the district’s handling of COVID-19 and we are confident that as COVID-19 has a lesser impact on our schools, that trend will continue.”
Handy stated that while enrollment is down, the district does not want to cut any additional staff positions.
“We do not believe it would be responsible budgeting to remove teacher positions from the budget during a time of instability due to COVID-19. We are in a position where learners, especially at the elementary school level, have demonstrated greater academic need as well as an increase in behavioral and other social emotional needs that have arisen due to the pandemic,” Handy said.
“Keeping staffing levels where they are at allows us to continue positive educational growth with our learners and also allows for smaller class sizes,” Duncan said. “At the elementary level, this allows for additional social emotional supports – something we have deemed to be critical throughout the pandemic for our younger learners. It also allows us to maintain the ability to provide social distancing, a key strategy in our Reopening Framework.”
The default budget proposed this year is $26.99 million, a $541,739 reduction from the full proposed budget. The tax rate impact of the default budget is a $2.60 per $1,000 of assessed value in Jaffrey and 57 cents per $1,000 for Rindge.
According to Handy, if the budget fails and a default budget is put into place, the district would likely have to cut up to six or seven teachers. No decisions have been made as to what grade levels or schools would be impacted by those cuts.
The district policy states that for kindergarten through second grade, the district’s goal is not more than 20 students per teacher. The goal is 25 students for third through fifth grade, and no more than 30 for the middle and high school grades. Handy said the district’s goal will be to maintain that standard, but cutting teachers would have an impact on class sizes.
“Cutting six or more positions will have a significant impact on potential class sizes and our ability to support our learners’ academic growth and social emotional wellbeing,” Handy said.
Jaffrey Selectman Kevin Chamberlain has expressed concern for the expected jump in Jaffrey’s tax rate if all warrant articles pass, and has said he intends to propose a cut to the proposed budget to match the current approved budget.
That budget is $26.77 million, or about $220,000 less than the default budget, which district officials have said would result in even further staffing cuts.
“We have already made significant cuts to our 2022-23 proposed operating budget and are already in a place where the default budget represents cutting staff members,” Duncan stated. “Further cuts would only serve to impact the quality of education we are able to provide as we would be forced to cut staff and programming. Having to work with a budget that is less than default would negatively impact our learners.”
The district is seeking a new two-year bargaining agreement between the district and the Jaffrey-Rindge Education Association. The agreement carries an estimated increase of $455,745 for the current year, and $394,762 for the 2023-2024 school year.
The support staff also has a bargaining agreement up for vote this year, which would result in a $61,405 increase for the current year, but a reduction of $10,554 in 2023-2024.
The district is requesting permission to enter a 15-year lease-to-purchase agreement for $4.47 million to finance new upgrades to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning units at the Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School and Conant High School. The first year’s payment would be $374,586.
The district underwent an assessment of its HVAC units during the pandemic, and some did not meet the recommended air flow needs, according to Handy.
“Throughout the pandemic we have pushed our HVAC units to their max capacity in order to provide the recommended air flow in our facilities. The last two years have taken a significant toll on units that were already approaching end of life,” Handy stated.
HVAC upgrades are in process at all three schools, a project that began in 2021 through grant funding, and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2022, if the warrant article passes. If the article does not pass, the district won’t finish the project district-wide for possibly several years.
“During that time period, we would still need to address individual units as they fail. The district doesn’t want to approach repairs and upgrades in this reactionary and costly manner,” Handy stated.
Following the district’s budget hearing, the district pulled a warrant article to upgrade bathrooms throughout the district, including restorative work and accessibility upgrades. The district also reduced requests for capital reserve funds, including the building maintenance reserve. The request is currently $300,000.
The maintenance reserve currently contains about $30,000, having been largely depleted in the past year to address parking lot expansions and improvements at the Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School/Conant High School and Rindge Memorial School lots, which were completed this past summer.
The district’s deliberative session is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Rindge Memorial School Gymnasium. The meeting is anticipated to also be livestreamed via Zoom, but Zoom participants may only observe and no voting or public comments via Zoom will be accepted.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.