The Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School Board spent a portion of its meeting on Monday grappling with the possible impacts of a new law that requires school towns to place a proposed school district tax cap on the November ballot.

House Bill 1300, signed into law by Gov. Kelly Ayotte last week, would mandate that every town and ward include a tax cap question on its November 2026 and November 2028 ballots.

“New Hampshire is at its best when we’re putting decision-making power in the hands of the people. This bill gives voters a say about their local property taxes and ensures Granite Staters’ voices are heard,” Ayotte said in a press release following the signing of the bill.

If the district adopted it, the tax cap would limit property tax growth for school districts to the prior year’s amount, adjusted for inflation and new construction. Additionally, spending by the School Administrative Unit, or SAU, office would be capped at 6% of total school district appropriations, excluding bonded capital costs. It would require a three-fifths majority vote to pass.

“So, everyone, both of our attorney firms that we work with, don’t know exactly all the implications,” said Superintendent Reuben Duncan.

Duncan said over the past several years, several school districts across the state have had tax caps on their warrants, usually by citizen petition, which the public has not supported.

This past year, Jaffrey-Rindge voters saw a petition article that would have imposed a budget cap, which would limit the budget to $24,944 per pupil, based on average daily membership on Oct. 1, adjusted for inflation. During the district’s Deliberative Session, voters amended the article to $100,000 per pupil, an intentionally inflated number intended to signal to the community that the article should fail, according to Aliia Stenersen, who proposed the amendment. The amendment passed at Deliberative Session, and the article failed at the polls.

“So the fact that now the state is saying, no, we’re going to put this back on there has not pleased, I think, a lot of individuals. It’s like, ‘No, we’ve already said we don’t want this, now you’re forcing this to go on there,'” Duncan said.

Duncan said for now, the district should plan for the possibility that a tax cap proposal will be required, as they watch the progress of the bill.

One of the potential implications, Duncan explained, was that the district may have to present the SAU budget and the rest of the district’s budget as two separate articles.

Duncan said that currently, the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District SAU offices are already at about 6% of the total school budget.

“We’re operating at that level right now,” Duncan said.

School Board Chair Lisa Wiley asked if the board would have to prepare two budgets, one anticipating that the bill and then the tax cap would pass. Duncan said that was an option, or to create a single budget that accounted for the “worst-case scenario.”

Wiley said she was frustrated by the “vagaries” in the law, as well as the state mandate.

“…The state is yet again saying, ‘School districts, you don’t have any say in what you’re doing,’ — it’s very frustrating that we keep losing local control,” Wiley said.

School Board member Christine Pressman asked about the impact on the teacher’s contract, which is just starting the negotiating process.

Duncan said that any language in the contract will have to take into account the possibility that the tax cap could pass. He said by the time it is time to put the contract before voters, the district will know whether or not the tax cap passed or failed.

“We’re going to have to be careful,” Duncan said.

School improvements

In other School Board news, Duncan updated the board on several maintenance projects, including the reconstruction of the Conant Middle High School track.

Reconstruction of the track began on May 18, and it was repaved and leveled, and then resurfaced with a top layer and repainted with lane lines. As of July 16, the track is complete.

Window replacement on the first floor of the Jaffrey Grade School has been completed. Duncan said the project is part of a multi-year window replacement plan throughout all of the schools, starting with the areas of greatest need at the elementary schools. Duncan said window replacement at Jaffrey Grade School and Rindge Memorial School will be complete by August.

Jaffrey Grade School has also replaced flooring in the second-floor classrooms and small group spaces.