Valley News Staff Writer
Saturday, September 12, 2015
(Published in print: Saturday, September 12, 2015)
(Published in print: Saturday, September 12, 2015)
http://www.vnews.com/news/newsletter/18563096-95/towns-hit-impasse-on-schools
Windsor — A loss of momentum in the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union could cause it to miss out on the
significant state tax incentives that go to early adopters of school
consolidation plans, as the details of potential plans sink in with more
parents and taxpayers in the union’s four towns, said Superintendent
David Baker.
Baker said the union is one of 10 or 11 in the
state that are in a “quandary” caused by the gulf between member towns
such as Hartland, Weathersfield and West Windsor, which currently offer
high school choice, and towns like Windsor, which operates its own high
school and does not offer choice.
Under the two different plans being considered,
either of which would bring the union’s four member districts into
compliance with the education reform law known as Act 46, “it’s either
going to have to be all choice or no choice,” Baker said.
The education reform law passed earlier this
year seeks to lower statewide education costs, in part by encouraging
smaller school districts to combine their administrative structures into
larger, more efficient units.
Earlier this summer, Baker and other
Windsor-area school officials hoped to build a consensus toward one of a
few suggested consolidation plans by holding a series of open forums,
but Baker said that has proven to be trickier than originally hoped.
“There are many people in Windsor who are
reconsidering opening up choice for their towns, and you’ve got folks in
the other three towns waking up to the fact that they might not want to
lose choice,” Baker said.
Last week, the school boards for the four towns
all voted to create a formal Study Committee, which will begin meeting
in October.
Baker said he expected that the Study Committee,
which is comprised of one board member and three citizens from each of
the four member towns, would reach a decision on a recommendation by
December.
By that time, Baker said, “we could have an
agreement on an accelerated option, or an agreement that we’re not going
to come to an agreement.”
Though the path toward consolidation is not as
clear as it once seemed, Baker said he was still hopeful that the
committee would be able to agree on one of the accelerated options —
ones that are approved by voters in each of the four towns by next
summer.
Act 46 offers hundreds of thousands of dollars
to school districts that get voter approval for consolidation plans by
July 2016; those that wait until July of 2017 get fewer incentives and
have to operate under spending caps, while in 2018, the state Agency of
Education will come up with its own plans for the remaining
unconsolidated districts.
In order to qualify for the incentives, small
school districts have to merge into more efficient structures. The
options under consideration in Windsor Southeast would see the four
existing school boards merge into one unified board, while the
individual district budgets would also be merged under the banner of the
“Mount Ascutney School District.”
The state has offered early adopters a
transition grant of $150,000, and a separate merger support grant, which
would be “equal to or greater than” a small schools grant of $88,000
that would be lost under the new law. There would also be a series of
tax incentives that would directly impact the tax rate for four years.
Last year, according to the Agency of
Education, Windsor High School’s enrollment was 294 students, a decline
of 25 percent from the 393 students who attended the school a decade
ago.
Members of the community have expressed diverse views on the district’s best path forward.
According to a video of last week’s joint
meeting of the four union school board posted by WOA 8 TV, Windsor
resident Win Townsend, whose two children graduated from Windsor High
School, said that parents will always have choice — to send their
children to private school, at their own expense.
“Everyone in the union would have infinite
choice all the time,” he said. “Except they wouldn’t have be able to
shift the burden of their tuition off onto their neighbors.”
During the meeting, Denise Mathews, of West
Windsor, likened it to building an airplane, and urged caution in
chasing the financial incentives on an offer from the state.
“If we take our time and let the state
governance boards really figure out what materials to use, what the
purpose of the plane is, we could get hit initially, but we could see
some savings over time,” she said … . “It’s so easy to jump on board
right away because you want that initial savings and then they change
their mind about what they want you to do.”
Baker agreed that waiting a year might allow
the union to explore alternative structures that could be more creative,
and that could also take advantage of potential future actions of the
legislature.
In order to come to a decision, the Study
Committee is reviewing feedback received during the summer forums, a
consolidation study conducted in 2012, and financial impact projections
developed by union staff members.
Baker said that the financial projections, which
help to flesh out different scenarios, underscore an unpleasant truth
about school choice.
“One thing we know, even though people don’t want to admit it, is choice is expensive,” he said.
If Windsor were to begin offering choice, it could lead to bigger tax bills in the four member towns.
But if families in Hartland, Weathersfield and
West Windsor were to give up school choice, it would bring a
“staggering” amount of money into the newly formed district, Baker said.
“Really what we’re talking about is not so much
choice, as about tuition,” Baker said. “It’s hard to argue, in a free
capitalistic economy, that choice isn’t a good thing. That’s hard to
argue. But when that’s associated with tax dollars and tuition that,
really, the local town has no jurisdiction over or control over, then it
becomes a different issue. People have said you might be pro-choice but
anti-tuition.”
To get some idea of what the tax impact might be
in future years, administrators generated numbers, which Baker said
have been vetted by the Agency of Education, that show the impact
all-choice or no-choice would have on the tax rates in the current
fiscal year.
If 37 students at Windsor High — about 30
percent of the student body — choose to go elsewhere, the tax rate in
all four member towns would have been about 4 cents higher per $100 of
valuation, or $100 on a home valued at $250,000. If 20 percent of
students left the district, the impact would have been about 2 cents on
the tax rate, and if 10 percent of students left the district, the
impact would have been less than a penny.
No one knows how many students the district
would actually lose — some say that the impact, at least for the short
term, might be virtually nonexistent.
Under the other plan being considered,
eliminating high school choice throughout the district, projections show
a big tax savings — even accounting for the 15 additional staffers
Baker said the district would have to hire.
As compared to all-choice projections, the
no-choice option would have saved about 23 cents off the tax rate in
Hartland or Windsor, a difference of $575 on a home valued at $250,000.
In Weathersfield, the difference is 15 cents, or $380 on a $250,000
home; and in West Windsor, the difference is 24 cents, or $607 on a
$250,000 home.
If the Study Committee presents a recommendation
that is approved by the four school boards this fall, a proposal would
likely go before voters of the four towns in the spring.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.
http://www.vnews.com/news/newsletter/18563096-95/towns-hit-impasse-on-schools
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