A petition article to sell two parcels of district-owned land will be on the Jaffrey-Rindge School District warrant, along with union contracts and a budget increase in excess of $1 million, a 3.3% increase.

During a budget hearing Thursday evening, the board unanimously approved all proposed warrant articles without making any changes, with the exception of the article to sell the land. Rindge resident Roberta Oeser submitted the article, which would require the district to sell two adjacent parcels on Route 202, one in Rindge and one in Jaffrey, at public auction by July 1 and to use the funds from the sale toward the district budget.

“The property has been held for 30-some years, and the likelihood of a school being built there is slim, maybe none, in our lifetime,” Oeser said. “There’s probably better use for it to lay there. Right now I think defraying the budget is more important to the taxpayers than keeping it.”

Though School Board Chair John McCarthy joined the rest of the board in voting not to recommend the article, he said it was a “reasonable question,” and that the district had formed a committee to discuss potential uses for the land. He also said the land was currently undergoing a timber harvesting, which would provide about $50,000 in revenue for the district. He said the properties were unique, as they bridged both communities in the district.

In other articles, the budget was proposed at approximately $31.8 million, which is slightly over $1 million higher than the current budget. Increases include $175,870 in contracted hikes from previously approved collective bargaining agreements, plus $112,000 in salary increases for non-teacher administrators and SAU staff, $115,000 in retiree buybacks and $220,000 in health and dental insurance increases.

Several increases are attributed to special education costs, including $641,000 in increases for in-district special education support with paraprofessional employees, $372,550 in out-of-district placement tuition and $58,000 in out-of-district transportation increases.

Additional staff in the coming year will include two full-time positions for a second “restorative classroom” at Jaffrey Grade School, which works with special education students; a full-time employee for the pre-kindergarten class; a full-time math teacher at the middle-high school; and a full-time maintenance employee.

Employee cuts include a half-time communication coordinator role, a full-time custodian supervisor, a full-time facilities coordinator and the elimination of four permanent substitute positions. Cuts in the budget include more than $100,000 in utility costs due to the expected decrease in electricity prices, a $204,000 decrease in the expected use of contracted services such as occupational, psychology, speech and other special education therapies, $25,000 in equipment purchases, $167,000 in facilities costs and an expected $157,100 reduction in out-of-district student services due to the new restorative classroom.

The proposed budget is lower than the default budget, which would go into place if the budget fails at the polls. The default budget is created using the previous budget, plus any increases required by law and minus one-time expenditures. The default this year is $31.9 million, and would include previously approved union pay increases, retiree buybacks, health and dental increases and student services placement and transportation for special education students.

The estimated tax impact of the budget would be an increase of 13 cents per $1,000 of assessed value in Jaffrey, and $1.19 per $1,000 in Rindge. The tax impact of the default would be 24 cents per $1,000 in Jaffrey and $1.28 per $1,000 in Rindge.

A three-year collective bargaining agreement with the teacher’s union is on the ballot this year. Salary increases for the district would include $557,275 for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, $513,259 for the following year and $500,836 for the third year. The tax impact for the first year of the contract is estimated to be 49 cents per $1,000 in Jaffrey and 39 cents per $1,000 in Rindge.

In the final monetary article on the warrant, the district is requesting $50,000 to be added into the district’s expendable trust fund for special education contingency costs. The fund currently has a balance of $456,047, and this year’s addition would put it over the $500,000 goal for the fund. The funds can be spent by the School Board after identifying an unanticipated special education expense, and holding a public hearing on the expenditure.

In previous years, the request for additions to the capital reserve came from the district’s unrestricted fund balance, or funds left over from the previous year. This year, they would be raised by taxation. The anticipated tax impact would be three cents per $1,000 in Jaffrey and four cents per $1,000 for Rindge.

The district’s deliberative session is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rindge Memorial School gymnasium.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.